Japan allegedly planned to postpone the 2021 Olympics due to coronavirus in sobering news after yesterday’s inauguration festivities.
The Times announced on Thursday, January 21, that the Japanese government has “privately concluded” to cancel the already postponed 2021 Olympics due to increasing cases of COVID-19 worldwide.
Japan is trying to find a “face-saving way” to announce the decision that also “leaves open the possibility of Tokyo playing host at a later date,” according to the article written by Richard Lloyd Parry.
Japan’s current focus is to host the games in Tokyo in 2032, the next available year, which was originally scheduled to start on July 24, 2020, and then rescheduled to start on July 23, 2021.
“No one wants to be the first to say so but the consensus is that it’s too difficult,” a source told Lloyd Parry. “Personally, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
The International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) will, however, beg to differ from now on. The I.O.C. issued a statement earlier the same day saying that this summer the 2021 Olympics will go ahead as scheduled.
“We have, at this moment, no reason whatsoever to believe that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on 23 July in the Olympic stadium in Tokyo,” said I.O.C. president Thomas Bach.
“This is why there is no plan B and this is why we are fully committed to make these Games safe and successful.” While Back was firm about the 2021 Tokyo Olympics happening, he did hint at potentially reducing the number of spectators as well as employing other precautions in order to ensure everyone’s safety.
“The priority is the safety,” Bach told Kyodo News. “When it comes to safety, then there can be no taboo.”
The I.O.C and Japanese Olympic organizers have openly sought to ensure that the 2021 Olympic Games will take place, with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga calling the upcoming Olympics “a proof of human victory against the coronavirus.”
But senior I.O.C. member Dick Pound cast some doubt as to whether the event will actually take place, stating, “I can’t be certain because the ongoing elephant in the room would be the surges in the virus.”
Source: Vulture