The 2021 Pacific Rim Championships were the latest big gymnastics competition to be canceled. Hosted by New Zealand, the competition was originally supposed to take place in the spring of 2020. It was moved to April of 2021 due to the pandemic. However, the Board of Gymnastics New Zealand said they are withdrawing from hosting the competition as they don’t feel it’s feasible for the competition to happen. New Zealand has been relatively spared by the pandemic since they closed the borders and instituted a strict lockdown quite early.
New Zealand is currently experiencing a rise in coronavirus cases, albeit small. Bringing people from all around the world for a sports competition could cause a much bigger rise. A mandatory 14-day quarantine for athletes after their arrival would probably deter most of the participants, since they wouldn’t be able to train during the quarantine.
Several competitions in other sports scheduled for 2021 in New Zealand were recently canceled or postponed.
