International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach admitted on Wednesday that the Tokyo Olympic Games, scheduled for 2020 and postponed by a year in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic, will be canceled if they are not held not in 2021. "I understand the position of our Japanese partners well," he said in an interview with the BBC. He was asked about the words of the boss of the organizing committee Yoshiro Mori, who estimated at the end of April that if the pandemic is still going on next summer, "then we will have to cancel".
"You can't eternally employ 3,000 or 5,000 people on the organizing committee," continued Thomas Bach, who stressed the "mammoth work" represented by this postponement and the reorganization into stunts of the major competitions that ensues. “We cannot change the world sports calendar for all the main federations. We cannot leave the athletes in the dark, ”he argued.
No fan of Games without spectators
While reiterating "the clear commitment that the Games will be held next July", Thomas Bach admitted that we must "be ready for different scenarios". Measures of "quarantine for athletes, for part of the athletes, for other participants" cannot be excluded.
The IOC boss did not want to answer the question of whether the development of a vaccine against the coronavirus was a sine qua non condition for the holding of the Olympic Games, but did not hide his little enthusiasm for Games without spectators. “This is what we do not want, because the Olympic spirit is to unite the fans, what makes the Games so unique is that there are spectators side by side came from all over the world in the same Olympic stadium, "said the former fencer. "When we have a clear idea of what the world will look like on July 23, 2021, we will make the appropriate decisions," he said.
On March 24, the IOC announced the postponement by one year of the Tokyo Olympics originally scheduled from July 24 to August 9, 2020, a first for the modern era Olympics in peacetime. The Tokyo Games are now rescheduled from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
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