International Olympic Committee (OIC) President Thomas Bach on Thursday admitted the possibility that the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo might get canceled if they do not take place by July next year, as scheduled by the organizers after postponing the games in light of the coronavirus pandemic
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st May, 2020) International Olympic Committee (OIC) President Thomas Bach on Thursday admitted the possibility that the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo might get canceled if they do not take place by July next year, as scheduled by the organizers after postponing the games in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics were originally due to take place from July 24 to August 9. In late March, the Japanese government of the Olympic Committee agreed to postpone the games due to the risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic to a later date.
"You cannot forever employ 3,000 to 5,000 people in an organizing committee. You cannot every year change the entire sports schedule worldwide of all the major federations. You cannot have the athletes being in uncertainty. You cannot have so much overlapping with the future Olympic Games [2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing]," Bach told the BBC.
The IOC chef said these were the reasons why he "had some understanding" for why Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a conversation about the postponement of the games "made it very clear from the very beginning that summer 2021 is the last option."
Asked about how confident he feels that the games will take place as scheduled, from July 23 to August 8 of next year, Bach said that the committee was preparing for "different scenarios," while maintaining "clear commitment to having these games in July next year."
There are three times that the Olympic Games have been canceled in modern history: the 1916 games in Berlin were not held because of World War I and the 1940 games in Tokyo and 1944 games in London because of World War II.
