Lausanne (AFP)

Faced with fears of cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics, the IOC must convince Wednesday that it can organize "safe" Games, while the evolution of the pandemic and access to vaccination are beyond its control.

"No plan B": even before his expected press point at 5.30 p.m. (4.30 p.m. GMT), after the executive committee of the instance, his boss, the German Thomas Bach, had to hammer home last week that the event would be held well from July 23 to August 8.

Because the Olympic sky has darkened significantly since the last meeting of the cenacle of Lausanne, at the beginning of December: we were celebrating the arrival of the first vaccines, come to consolidate a sporting world already satisfied to have been able to resume its competitions.

But in the meantime, several Covid-19 mutations have been detected, prompting many countries to tighten their restriction measures to prevent the spread of variants suspected of being much more contagious.

Six months before the opening ceremony, Japan declared a state of emergency, and its public opinion is increasingly hostile to the idea of ​​hosting this gigantic potential epidemic center.

- No vaccine priority -

In this stormy climate, Japanese organizers and IOC can only repeat their "determination" to maintain the largest peaceful gathering in the world, especially since they have always said that there would be no second postponement: it is this summer or never.

Unlike in winter 2020, when the Canadian and Australian Olympic committees refused to send their athletes to Tokyo and pushed the IOC to announce the postponement of the Games, Thomas Bach can at least count on the unity of the Olympic world.

But the part remains delicate for the body, which has no direct influence on the evolution of the health situation, the circulation restrictions, the advances in research and the vaccine policies of the various governments.

On this crucial subject, the IOC said on Tuesday that it would not subject participation in the Games to being vaccinated, and that it would not demand priority access to vaccines for athletes either.

Already difficult to envisage on a practical level, such a "prioritization" would have been questionable on the ethical level, while there is currently "not enough vaccines for people at risk", recalled Monday the World Organization of health.

The IOC nonetheless encourages athletes to be vaccinated by the summer, once the doses are accessible to "a wider public", for their safety as "out of respect for the Japanese people".

- Behind closed doors -

Because the Japanese organizers, like the IOC, are ready to do anything to secure the Games in a time of pandemic, even if it is necessary to give up the festive atmosphere until then inseparable from the Olympic experience.

"There can be no taboo to guarantee safe Games", underlined Friday Thomas Bach in a video message, recalling that the organizers would dig in the spring among a battery of health measures.

"It ranges from immigration rules to quarantine rules, including social distancing in the Olympic village, rapid tests, vaccination and the spectator issue," he said.

"How many? And will there be spectators?", Launched the German leader, clearly evoking the hypothesis of a closed door, while the revenues of the Games are mainly due to their TV broadcast much more than crowds in the stadiums.

In the Olympic world, in which athletes are preparing as best they can for one of the major milestones of their careers and where many federations are playing for their financial survival, the prospect of the Games under bell seems already integrated.

"I would love to have fans, loud and passionate," Sebastian Coe, head of the International Olympic Federation, admitted Friday to the BBC.

"But if the only way to organize the Games is to close the doors, then I believe everyone will accept it."

© 2021 AFP