OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – The Olympics have been postponed for a year because of the coronavirus.

In the Bay Area, the U.S. crew team had been preparing for Tokyo 2020. 

Now, they must adjust and figure out what is next.

Since 2017, many of the best American rowers in the country have been training in the East Bay, with hopes of representing our country in the 2020 Olympic Games. 

Now, with the games officially postponed, most of the athletes will head home, wait this thing out like the rest of us.

“The future will basically be me on my own training on a rowing machine, in a gym or on a bike and that will likely be the case for my teammates here and for a lot of olympic hopefuls as well,” Mike DiSanto said.

Training for the Olympics is a full-time job. Years of blood, sweat, and tears goes into it. 

For a sport like crew, that isn’t a huge revenue generating sport here in the states, it is even more of a commitment.

“It was getting increasingly worse all over. So I don’t think we were caught by surprise but it is obviously tough to hear and work through it and process it. We were getting ready to peak physically mentally and emotionally for this summer and now we will be pushing it off over another year,” DiSanto said.

But this is an unprecedented situation, and everyone understands in order to compete one day, you must be safe and healthy.

“Keeping things in perspective that there are going to be people who are really sick and people who lose their jobs and that is far more important that competing in the Olympics so if I get to stay healthy and my friends and family keep their jobs and remain healthy, I’ll be happy at the end of the days,” DiSanto said.

As far as this year’s group of Olympic hopefuls, Mike said the team was full of potential, especially the young guys who have yet to compete in an Olympic games.

“This team was very competitive. Some of the younger, newer guys were really pushing the standard up. As an older guy making you think you’d come back and have it a little easier but that certainly hasn’t been the case. If anything I have had to refocus and push even harder because those guys haven’t been before and they have this passion and intensity that you need to match every day,” DiSanto said.

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