The fate of this year’s Olympic Games is shrouded in the mystery of a growing pandemic and the search for a global vaccine. President Thomas Bach of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said he was hopeful that, three weeks before the first vaccine doses were publicly available in the United Kingdom last November, an effective vaccine would enable the Games to start safely. Fast-forward to January 2021, organizers may not be able to rely as they would have anticipated on the rollout of vaccines, as the rollout phase, especially across Europe, has been slowed by distribution impediments. Jason Kindrachuk, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Manitoba in Canada, claims that many people have this vested conviction that it would mean the end of Covid as the vaccine begins to roll out, and what we would find is that transmission rates would continue to decline, things would become more regulated and we would have some capacity to go back to a more usual lifestyle. He also said that we’re having trouble keeping a grip on transmission even with successful vaccine rollouts in many regions of the globe. Despite the situation, organizers would make a great effort to ensure that Olympic athletes and tourists arrive vaccinated (in Tokyo). Where Olympic participants stand on the priority list for a vaccine may be a point of the debate. The general opinion among athletes is that they are willing to wait.