BREAKING NEWS: Tokyo 2020 Olympics ‘will be SCRAPPED’ for the first time since World War II if they can’t be held next year, insists the Games’ president
Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori has warned that next summer’s Olympic Games, already postponed to 2021, would be ‘scrapped’ if they could not take place next summer.
The International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government last month postponed the Games until July 2021 because of the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
With the epidemic’s worldwide infection rate climbing and experts suggesting a vaccine is still a long way off, questions are being asked about whether a further delay might be needed.
Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori said that the Olympic Games could be scrapped next year
The IOC and the Japanese government last month postponed the Games until July 2021
But Mori has insisted that if the Games cannot go ahead as now planned next year then they will be axed completely.
‘No. In that case, the Olympics will be scrapped,’ Mori told Japanese sports daily Nikkan Sports, when asked if the Games could be postponed again until 2022.
If that was to be the case then they would become the first Games to be cancelled outside of wartime.
A state of emergency has been declared in Japan until May 6 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The head of the Japanese Medical Association (JMA) has also warned that it would be ‘difficult’ to continue with the Games next year unless ‘an effective vaccine’ is produced between now and then.
The new National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo will not see any Olympic action this summer now
‘Unless an effective vaccine is developed I think it will be difficult to hold the Olympics next year,’ JMA president Yoshitake Yokokura said on Tuesday.
‘I’m not saying at this point that they shouldn’t be held. The outbreak is not only confined to Japan … it’s a worldwide issue.’
Several health experts have cast doubt on plans to hold the Games next July and August. Last week, Kentaro Iwata, a specialist in infectious diseases, said he thought it ‘unlikely’ that the Games would be held just over a year from now.
‘To be honest with you, I don’t think the Olympics is likely to be held next year,’ Iwata, a professor at Kobe University, said. ‘Holding the Olympics needs two conditions; one, controlling Covid-19 in Japan, and controlling Covid-19 everywhere.’
‘I am very pessimistic about holding the Olympic Games next summer unless you hold them in a totally different structure such as no audience, or a very limited participation.’