Tokyo (AFP)

The Olympic flame landed Friday in Japan, where the planned festive reception was reduced to its simplest expression due to the coronavirus pandemic, which hinted at the doubt about the very hosting of the Tokyo Games this summer.

"A heartbreaker", released Tuesday the executive director of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, Toshiro Muto, resigned to announce measures to limit the spread of the new coronavirus during the torch relay across the country .

This fire, a symbol of the union of humanity in the Olympic spirit, had already been lit without an audience on March 12 at the ancient site of Olympia, in Greece, where the deadly virus is also raging. Then his trip on Greek soil had to be stopped because of too many crowds.

Appeared in China in December, the disease has killed nearly 9,000 people around the world, disrupted habits, made whole countries cloister, while it threatens to plunge the world economy into recession.

By starting its journey in what the Japanese call the Tohoku, or northeast region, the flame was to symbolize the reconstruction of the areas devastated by the gigantic tsunami of March 11, 2011, also marked by the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. .

- Canceled ceremonies -

Two hundred children from the region were to welcome on arrival at an air base in Miyagi prefecture the golden pink torch, like the cherry blossoms eagerly awaited each spring in Japan. They will stay at home.

A big departure without spectators on March 26 in the Fukushima region from J-Village, a large sports complex transformed for years into the headquarters of workers responsible for securing and cleaning up the devastated nuclear power plant.

No spectators either at the departures and arrivals of each stage of the relay, welcoming ceremonies by the municipalities of the course canceled, temperature measurement of each relay.

Spectators will be able to follow the runners from the side of the road but were asked to refrain from any sign of illness.

"Avoid forming crowds" also plead the organizers in Japan, where more than 900 carriers of the virus have been identified with 31 deaths.

At 10,000 km, in a Europe that has become a major focus of the virus, Greece transmitted the flame to Japan on Thursday, in an empty Panathenaic stadium in Athens.

The torch was symbolically awarded to Naoko Imoto, a Japanese swimmer at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Japanese organizers, unable to travel to Europe due to the border closures, called her at the last minute because she lives in Greece.

- Sling in athletes -

The torch must travel all regions of the Japanese archipelago until July 24, the date scheduled for the opening in Tokyo of the most important sporting event in the world, with huge financial stakes.

But for many, the heart is no longer there as doubt and uncertainty progress on the maintenance of the event.

Already a multitude of sporting events have been reported around the world, and not the least: the Euro and Copa America football, Roland-Garros for tennis or the Paris-Roubaix cycling race. For the Olympic Games themselves, certain qualification tests had to be abandoned.

On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deemed "no need to take radical decisions", triggering a sling among many athletes.

"I think that the IOC's insistence on maintaining its line, with such conviction, is insensitive and irresponsible," said former Canadian hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser, four-time Olympic gold medalist and IOC member.

"The IOC asks us to continue to endanger our health, that of our families and people, just to train each day?" accused Greek pole vaulter Katerina Stefanidi on Twitter.

"There is no consideration of the risk they impose on us," said the 2016 Olympic champion again.

burx-uh / etb / sg

© 2020 AFP