As the clock ticks toward the Tokyo Olympics while training venues stand idle and qualifying events are postponed because of the new coronavirus pandemic, American athletes are running short of options – and some are running short of patience – on whether there should be a 2020 Olympics.

USA Swimming and USA Track and Field have asked the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to lobby the International Olympic Committee in favor of delay. USA Gymnastics said it will survey its national teams to determine if athletes favor a delay and, if so, for how long.

USA Gymnastics’ decision to survey its athletes came after gymnasts Sam Mikulak and Colin Van Wicklen, following a week in which they were locked out of training facilities in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Norman, Okla, respectively, also called for the IOC to delay the Games.

“It is unrealistic to expect athletes to prepare mentally and physically when we are not allowed to train or keep up our daily routine,” Van Wicklen said. “Athlete and public safety should mean more than medals and money.”

While he has competed for three NCAA title teams at Oklahoma and was a member of the USA Gymnastics world championships team in 2018. Van Wicklen is not among the more well-known members of the national team.

So the attention that resulted from his bold comments, followed by USA Gymnastics’ decision to survey athletes about a delay, capped off a remarkable week for him.

“It shows how much the Olympic means to us,” he said Friday. “Athletes around the world dedicate their lives to making their dreams come true, and what everybody wants is a fair show and a fair opportunity.”

Van Wicklen’s mother was a longtime employee of Cypress Academy of Gymnastics in northwest Houston, and he made his first visit to the gym when he was two days old. He trained at Cypress before attending Oklahoma and returned briefly to Houston before moving back to Norman to train with national team members Yul Moldauer and Allan Bower.

OU, however, closed its athletics facilities to all users when the school was shut down in the midst of the COVID-19 advance. Without a place to train, Van Wicklen drove to Houston with his espresso machine and his Huskies, Baloo and Luna, but minutes after arriving learned that Cypress Academy also had been closed.

He trained for two days last week at EnRich Gymnastics in Richmond, but that venue also was closed Tuesday. He headed back that night to Norman, where he is now training with three other former OU gymnasts at a gym owned by 1984 gold medalist Bart Conner.

The uncertainty and the interruption in routine, he said, has been wearing on all Olympic hopefuls.

“It’s physically and mentally draining,” said Van Wicklen. “When you dream of going to the Olympics, you dream of being in the best shape of your lives heading into national championships and Olympic trials.

“It’s a storybook ending, and that’s not what we have right now. This is not how we wanted things to happen.”

His dogs, he said, have provided a welcome release from current cares and future worries.

“I can’t imagine doing this without them,” he said. “Being able to take them on walks and runs to find joy outside gymnastics has been great for my mental state. If I start getting anxious, I grab the leashes and we take off.”

Mikulak, a six-time national all-around champion and two-time Olympian, lost his training site when the Olympic Training Center’s training facilities were closed by Colorado’s governor.

Also idled at the OTC were Houston boxers Darius Fulgham and Ginny Fuchs, who were training in Colorado Springs for an upcoming Olympic qualifier in Argentina that has been postponed.

Fulgham said boxers were knocked for a loop by the decision to postpone the Americas qualifier and unnerved by the uncertain nature of when they will have a chance to qualify for the Olympics.

The hardest part, he said, “is the uncertainty. This is like a curveball that you have to adjust to.”

Fulgham returned to return to Houston but found his longtime gym shut down. He said he’s training in a garage gym for now.

Since his long-term boxing future is as a professional rather than in the amateur ranks, Fulgham is among the minority of athletes who have spoken publicly on the issue in saying that he favors continuing with the Olympics as scheduled.

“I want the Olympics to continue,” he said in a text message. “It was said that it still will. So much information is changing by the second, so something like this is hard to predict. But I believe in the world’s public health care system that they will get things back in order soon.”

Fuchs, meanwhile, hit the road in Colorado for a camping trip with three friends, including Mikaela Mayer, a 2016 U.S. Olympic team member who is 12-0 as a professional.

“We were told that we could stay in our dorm rooms (at the training center), and the cafeteria and the sports medicine centers are still open,” Fuchs said. “But we decided to go camping and train outdoors.

“This has to be the best idea during this crisis. I have plenty of room to train. Nature is at its most interesting right now, and there’s no reason to be locked up. We can do what we need to do outdoors and enjoy nature while we can.”

Fuchs, however, said she would not be surprised if the Olympics are delayed.

“The increase in the number of cases shows how bad this really is,” she said. “I don’t think the IOC will have any choice but to postpone for at least a couple of months.”

Three Olympic hopefuls from the Woodlands Diving Academy, meanwhile, also lost their training site when the Conroe school district closed its natatorium in Shenandoah.

2016 Olympic team member Kassidy Cook spent the week training in Midland along with others who were scheduled to compete at a World Cup meet in Tokyo that now has been postponed.

Cook recently competed at two Grand Prix events in Europe, winning one singles championship and two synchro titles with partner Sarah Bacon. She and Bacon were scheduled to compete next month at an Olympic qualifying event in Tokyo that has been postponed.

“I’m obviously a little upset about the uncertain, but it is out of my control,” she said. “I’m trying to stay in the present and focus on what I can control – my health and my training.

Two other local divers, 2000 gold medalist Laura Wilkinson and Maria Coburn, a three-time world junior medalist on springboard from Round Rock, are working at the Woodlands team’s dryland training gym while awaiting developments.

In fencing, 2012 Olympic medalists Kelley and Courtney Hurley have been joined by most of the men’s and women’s national epee national team at Alliance Fencing Academy in the Spring Branch area, where they’re working with national team coach Andrey Geva.

“We’re kind of like a small island in the ocean of coronavirus disaster,” Geva said.

Another island of productive training is weightlifting coach Tim Swords’ garage gymnasium in League City, where 2016 bronze medalist Sarah Robles trained prior to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

The Houston area’s two most decorated Olympians, meanwhile, have considerably different training situations.

While gymnast Simone Biles continues to work at her family’s World Gymnastics Centre in Montgomery County, swimmer Simone Manuel, the two-time 2016 gold medalist who trains at Stanford University, has been working at a private club pool since Stanford closed its athletics facilities in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Manual declined through a spokeswoman to comment on her preparations but said in a Twitter post that she is more concerned with the state of the world’s health than her own routine.

“This situation is impacting everyone: jobs, kids having proper education, missing experiences (proms, NCAAs, graduation), missing meals, altered routines, etc.,” Manuel wrote.

“Everyone is going through it, but what is most important is that we all come together to protect each other and the ones we love. Putting my faith and trust in God’s plan!”

And, as a frazzled week came to a close, she added a piece of practical advice.

“If you’re stressing, try to take a deep breath and clear your head,” she said. “Mental health is so important right now.”