The Long Run

When you're an Olympian, every moment of the four years between the big competitions is rigorously planned and perfectly weighted to get you in your best form on the big day. So what happened to the thousands of athletes left in the lurch when the 2020 Tokyo Games were cancelled earlier this year? Madeleine Spencer and Maeve Bannister speak to athletes and trainers about how rescheduling the Games and living under a lockdown changes your roadmap - and why the four-year cycle might be having such a big effect on athletes' mental health.