Tower Cliff: "Olympics may be postponed for a year"

One by one, voices from national sports federations and activists say that the Tokyo Olympics should be postponed due to the global spread of the corona virus.

Among those who want to move to the games is the American Athletic Association - but the Swedish counterpart, like the Swedish Olympic Committee (SOK), wants to stay low.

- We have not discussed this issue but are following developments and seeing what is happening. We have not said one thing or the other so far, says associate captain Karin Torneklint.

Her contract with the Swedish Athletics Association expires after the Olympics - but postponing the games she does not rule out that there may be talk of an extension.

- We don't know. We have not discussed that, I dare not answer it. Since everything changes all the time, it's hard for me to know anything. We will have to decide on that later.

Secretary General of the Swedish Athletics Association Stefan Olsson about a possible extension:

- It depends on how far ahead the Olympics would be postponed. In this situation we are in, we can probably not exclude anything. It is important to have open eyes and be prepared for different scenarios.

At the same time he announces that a recruitment work is in full swing and that the ambition is for a successor to Torneklint to be appointed before the summer.

That the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would get its way through and organize the Olympics as scheduled between July 24 and August 9 sees Torneklint as unlikely.

- I thought they would shoot at the Olympics until September-October, but the longer it goes, it feels even less likely, she says.

- The longer it goes, you think it may be postponed for a whole year. But it is very difficult to predict and it is really the ten thousand kroner question right now.

TT: Do you think that Sweden, like many other countries, should demand that the Olympics be postponed?

- I don't know what I think about this issue because it's so incredibly complex. Everything is changing all the time so it is very difficult to see. But I think they have to make a decision pretty soon, I think it will be difficult to implement when it is intended. I find it hard to see that they could handle it. But I'm not an expert on viruses.