Coronavirus: can the Tokyo Games be canceled or postponed? - France 24

Lausanne (AFP)

Can the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games scheduled to start on July 24 be canceled, postponed or held in camera? Who will make the decision and when?

The coronavirus crisis raises many questions and even if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refuses to discuss such scenarios, the world of sport wonders.

Q: Can the Tokyo 2020 Olympics be canceled?

Since the start of the modern Olympic Games (Athens in 1896), neither boycotts (in 1980 in Moscow and 1984 in Los Angeles), nor the SARS virus (in 2003) or zika (before the Olympic Games in Rio 2016) have had because of the Games.

Only the world wars led to the cancellation of the Olympic Games planned in 1916 in Berlin or in 1940 in Sapporo (winter) and Tokyo (summer), and 1944 in Cortina d'Ampezzo (winter) and London (summer).

In theory, the IOC has the power to cancel the Olympic Games or to withdraw them from Tokyo. But its president, Thomas Bach, assured him again last Wednesday: "Neither the word cancellation nor the word postponement were mentioned".

Questioned by AFP, the IOC persists: "We are working with the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee for the success of the Olympic Games. We have confidence in them, in the Japanese public authorities and in the World Health Organization ( WHO) with which we are in constant contact ".

But with the worsening of the coronavirus crisis, the possibility of cancellation cannot be entirely ruled out.

Q: Who can decide to cancel the Games?

The IOC entrusts the Organizing Committee with the mission of organizing the Olympic Games and the charter provides that they must take place in the planned year (2020) under penalty of cancellation, a principle confirmed in early March by the Japanese Minister for the Olympic Games , Seiko Hashimoto.

But this can be modified with 2/3 of the votes of the IOC members who could thus decide to postpone them.

The power to cancel the Olympic Games formally rests with the IOC. The "host city" contract signed between the IOC and Tokyo provides that the IOC can withdraw the organization of the Olympic Games from the host city "if the security of the participants is seriously threatened".

Any decision will be presented "as joint, but the national government in hand," said Jean-Loup Chappelet, professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Public Administration (IDHEAP) in Lausanne and specialist in the IOC.

Q: When should a decision be made?

The IOC does not express an opinion because it repeats having confidence in the "success" of the event. Only Canadian Dick Pound, Dean of the proceeding, spoke of the need for a deadline. "At some point, whether two months or a month upstream, someone will have to decide," he said in late February.

Q: Can the Tokyo Olympics be postponed?

If this possibility has not been officially mentioned, "it is an option that would limit breakage for all (government, IOC, federations ...)", believes Mr. Chappelet.

For the academic, "the Japanese government will only take action to cancel the Games in an extreme case because Japan relies heavily on these Games for its image. At worst, it would perhaps postpone a year for day ".

For the Briton Patrick Nally, at the origin in the 80s of the IOC marketing program, a postponement "would be a simpler and more logical solution. The contractual partners would see their rights honored" and the sportsmen "would have the same time to to prepare".

But the international federations are divided. "For the + small + sports, that does not pose problems but a postponement would have serious consequences for major sports like basketball which would have to adapt their calendar and their national championships", estimates a large federation.

Q: Can the Olympic Games be held in camera?

About fifteen "test-events" are still planned in Japan before the start of the Olympic Games, in particular in swimming, gymnastics or cycling, some still qualifying for the Olympic Games. Several federations have mentioned the possibility of organizing these competitions behind closed doors. The Cojo de Tokyo has indicated that it will examine "case by case the need" to organize them.

But for the Olympic Games, for which more than 4.5 million tickets have been sold, going without the public seems difficult to envisage.

"Organizing the Olympics behind closed doors is an" impossible and unrealistic "option, Nally said.

"The public is one thing, but how do we manage the 11,000 athletes housed in the Olympic Village? Should we confine them?" Asked the head of another federation.

For Jean-Christophe Rolland, president of the International Rowing Federation, "we're not going to start thinking about totally hypothetical questions". Member of the IOC, he says "optimistic. As I speak, the Olympic Games will take place".

© 2020 AFP