IOC member casts doubt on postponing or moving Tokyo Games
Two people wear masks as they visit the newly opened Japan Olympic Museum located near the New National Stadium, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020, in Tokyo. (Photo: AP)
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are likely to be canceled if the coronavirus outbreak is not controlled by late May, according to International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound.
A
senior member of the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday that
if it proves too dangerous to hold the Olympics in Tokyo this summer
because of the coronavirus outbreak, organizers are more likely to
cancel it altogether than to postpone or move it.
Dick Pound, a former Canadian swimming champion who has been on the IOC since 1978, making him its longest-serving member, estimated there is a three-month window — perhaps a two-month one — to decide the fate of the Tokyo Olympics, meaning a decision could be put off until late May.
“In
and around that time, I’d say folks are going to have to ask: ‘Is this
under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo
or not?’” he said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.
As
the games draw near, he said, “a lot of things have to start happening.
You’ve got to start ramping up your security, your food, the Olympic
Village, the hotels. The media folks will be in there building their
studios.”
If the IOC decides the games cannot go forward as scheduled in Tokyo, “you’re probably looking at a cancellation,” he said.
IOC senior member: 3 months to decide fate of Tokyo Olympics
TOKYO-A senior member of the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday that if it proves too dangerous to hold the Olympics in Tokyo this summer because of the coronavirus outbreak, organizers are more likely to cancel it altogether than to postpone or move it.
Dick Pound, a former Canadian swimming champion who has been on the
IOC since 1978, making him its longest-serving member, estimated there
is a three-month window - perhaps a two-month one - to decide the fate
of the Tokyo Olympics, meaning a decision could be put off until late
May.
"In and around that time, I'd say folks are going to have to ask: 'Is
this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to
Tokyo or not?'" he said in an exclusive interview with The Associated
Press.
As the games draw near, he said, "a lot of things have to start happening. You've got to start ramping up your security, your food, the Olympic Village, the hotels. The media folks will be in there building their studios."
If the IOC decides the Games cannot go forward as scheduled in Tokyo, "you're probably looking at a cancellation," he said.
The viral outbreak that began in China two months ago has infected
more than 80,000 people globally and killed over 2,700, the vast
majority of them in China. But the virus has gained a foothold in South
Korea, the Middle East and Europe, raising fears of a pandemic. Japan
itself has reported four deaths.
Pound encouraged athletes to keep training. About 11,000 are expected
for the Olympics, which open July 24, and 4,400 are bound for the
Paralympics, which open Aug. 25.
"As far as we all know, you're going to be in Tokyo," Pound said.
"All indications are at this stage that it will be business as usual. So
keep focused on your sport and be sure that the IOC is not going to
send you into a pandemic situation."
The modern Olympics, which date to 1896, have been canceled only
during wartime. The Olympics in 1940 were supposed to be in Tokyo but
were called off because of Japan's war with China and World War II. The
Rio Games in Brazil went on as scheduled in 2016 despite the outbreak of
the Zika virus.
Pound repeated the IOC's stance - that it is relying on consultations
with the World Health Organization, a United Nations body, to make any
move.
As for the possibility of postponement, he said: "You just don't
postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics. There's so
many moving parts, so many countries and different seasons, and
competitive seasons, and television seasons. You can't just say, `We'll
do it in October.'"
Pound said moving to another city also seems unlikely "because there
are few places in the world that could think of gearing up facilities in
that short time to put something on."
London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has suggested the British
capital as an alternative. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike suggested the offer
was an attempt to use the virus for political purposes.
Pound said he would not favor a scattering of Olympic events to other
places around the world because that wouldn't "constitute an Olympic
Games. You'd end up with a series of world championships." He also said
it would be extremely difficult to spread around the various sports over
a 17-day period with only a few months' notice.
Holding the Olympics in Tokyo but postponing them by a few months
would be unlikely to satisfy North American broadcasters, whose
schedules are full in the fall with American pro football, college
football, European soccer, basketball, baseball and ice hockey. Other
world broadcasters also have jammed schedules.
"It would be tough to get the kind of blanket coverage that people expect around the Olympic Games," Pound said.
He also cast doubt on the possibility of a one-year delay. Japan is
officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics, although a
national audit board says the country is spending twice that much.
"You have to ask if you can hold the bubble together for an extra
year," Pound said. "Then, of course, you have to fit all of this into
the entire international sports schedule."
Pound said the IOC has been building up an emergency fund, reported
to be about $1 billion, for unforeseen circumstances to help the IOC and
the international sports federations that depend on income from the
IOC. About 73% of the IOC's $5.7 billion income in a four-year Olympic
cycle comes from broadcast rights.
"It's not an insurable risk, and it's not one that can be attributed
to one or the other of the parties," he said. "So everybody takes their
lumps. There would be a lack of revenue on the Olympic movement side."
Pound said the future of the Tokyo Games is largely out of the IOC's hands and depends on the course the virus takes.
"If it gets to be something like the Spanish flu," Pound said,
referring to the deadly pandemic early in the 20th century that killed
millions, "at that level of lethality, then everybody's got to take
their medicine."
Japan to ban entry by foreigners who have visited COVID-19 hotspots in S. Korea
Pedestrians wearing face masks, amid concerns over the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, walk on a street in Tokyo on February 25, 2020.
Japan is planning to ban entry by foreign nationals who have visited certain regions in South Korea due to outbreaks of COVID-19 there, government sources said on Wednesday.
Specifically, the regions that foreign nationals have visited in South Korea that will be subject to the entry ban are the South Korean city of Daegu and neighboring county of Cheongdo in North Gyeongsang Province, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, the sources said.
The entry ban comes on the heels of the foreign ministry here a day earlier raising its alert level for both the city and country in southeastern Korea.
The ministry in raising its alert level, advised Japanese people to avoid making trips to the region that were not essential.
Source: AP; CGTN;
https://peoplesdaily.pdnews.cn; https://japantoday.com, BY STEPHEN WADE