The Ivy League also canceled all athletics for the spring on Wednesday after the NCAA announced that it would not allow fans at its championship events—including all March Madness games—for the rest of the year.
“While I understand how disappointing this is for all fans of our sports, my decision is based on the current understanding of how COVID-19 is progressing in the United States,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a. “This decision is in the best interest of public health, including that of coaches, administrators, fans and, most importantly, our student-athletes.
On Wednesday, March 11, the NCAA Indoor Championships were still set to proceed as planned , so the three Harvard athletes who qualified for the event—senior Kieran Tuntivate and juniors Abbe Goldstein and Anna Juul—packed up their dorms early before their flights to New Mexico on Wednesday.
There, the coaches delivered the news that Harvard had decided to scratch the three runners from the meet—at the time, the only school to make that decision.. “We all broke down immediately. It was raw for a few hours. We were sitting around to see if we could reverse the decision. That kept me sane for a bit. I was just so speechless.”