Paris (AFP)

The pressure increased a notch on Saturday on the International Olympic Committee to postpone the Tokyo Olympics, scheduled for this summer, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

After the calls made by athletes, several sports organizations took over, including the powerful American athletics and swimming federations.

For several days, the Lausanne-based Olympic body must justify its standby position, while the human toll of the new coronavirus is worsening daily and containment measures are increasing worldwide, now reaching 900 million people.

"We do not live in a bubble or on another planet (...) Of course we are examining several scenarios", but "it would not be responsible today and it would be premature to go into speculation and make a decision ", reaffirmed the IOC President, German Thomas Bach, in an interview broadcast Thursday by the New York Times, about the potential postponement of the most awaited sporting event in the world, scheduled from July 24 to August 9.

But from the United States, the response was quick, despite the support of the American Olympic Committee (USOPC) to the official position. First, it is the swimming federation, USA Swimming, from the top of its 33 medals, including 16 in gold, won at Rio-2016, which demanded the postponement, on the grounds that its swimmers can no longer train normally, except to take the risk of being contaminated or of contaminating in turn. An argument also raised by many top athletes in the world, such as the Olympic pole vault champion, the Greek Katerina Stefanidi, who accused the IOC of "endangering our health".

All week long, athletes broadcast, sometimes with humor, the images of their training, confined to their homes, with rudimentary material.

- "inevitable" -

"Our swimmers are always ready for any race, anytime and anywhere. However, going ahead amid the global health crisis this summer is not the answer. The right thing and the responsibility to do is to prioritize everyone's health and safety, "wrote USA Swimming general manager Tim Hinchey in a letter to the USOPC.

Then, on Saturday, the boss of the American athletics federation, Max Siegel, took over, in turn asking the USOPC to act with the IOC.

"The best and most responsible decision is to put everyone's health and safety first, and to see clearly the effects that this difficult situation has had and continues to have on our athletes and their preparation for the Olympic Games", writes the boss of USA Track & Field, while acknowledging that there is "no perfect solution".

Calls to postpone the Olympics also came from France, where the swimming federation highlighted "sports equity".

"In France in particular, the athletes are disadvantaged by a general confinement which no longer allows them to train at all," she noted. The same goes for the Norwegian Olympic Committee: "It is important that the IOC make a decision as soon as possible, so that everyone has a fair chance to prepare," spokeswoman Sofie told AFP. Olsen.

The Olympic body is also under pressure by the postponement of several prestigious competitions, such as the Euro-2020 football, scheduled for June and postponed by a year, or the tennis tournament of Roland-Garros, shifted from May to September. With a budget of more than 11 billion euros invested in infrastructure or organization, 11,000 athletes from around the world and millions of spectators expected in Japan, the logistical challenge of postponing the Olympic Games would be beyond measure.

However, for an increasing number of actors, decisions must be made quickly. "We are convinced that in the current situation, we are going towards a postponement, it is inevitable," declared the boss of the French athletics federation, André Giraud. For him, "the decision must now be made, to get the athletes out of the stressful and worried situation in which they are".

A position summarized by the lapidary tweet of the American Ashton Eaton, double Olympic champion in the decathlon: "Tokyo-2021. There is no other solution".

© 2020 AFP