Tokyo organizers have hinted on the potential postponement of the summer Olympics 2020 oppugning to the Japanese government’s firm standpoint of not taking postponement of the sporting festival into consideration.
Despite the WHO declaring the COVID-19 coronavirus as a pandemic on 11th March, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) President, Thomas Bach remains adamant on going forward with the games as per the schedule and the Japanese government is headed in the same direction.
But a huge degree of international condemnation coming from athletes, representatives, and fans across the world call for the postponement or even cancellation of the event owing to the nasty impact of the coronavirus all over the world. This has finally evoked the game organizers to plan alternatives in case of the event postponement.
“We are making alternative plans – plan B, C, D – looking at different postponement time-frames,” said an official, adding the scenarios included cost estimates for different delays. Another source said that a postponement is under discussion including delays of 1 or 2 years.
The Japanese government, however, wishes not to bear the losses that the delay may bring up upon the government and also to hold the games in its full glory after putting in so many efforts in its preparations.
“I want to hold the Olympics and Paralympics perfectly, as proof that the human race will conquer the new coronavirus,”, said Japanese PM, Shinzo Abe.
“It only says if the games are not to be held within 2020, the IOC has a right to cancel the games. It depends on how this is interpreted but it can be read as allowing a postponement within 2020. At the moment Tokyo 2020, the IOC and the host city Tokyo are doing their best to hold the Games on July the 24th and we the government would like to firmly support them.”
Cited Seiko Hashimoto, Japan’s Olympic Minister on 13th March. She indicated that the Japanese government was not ready to bear the huge financial loss if the games were to be delayed as the event comes with a budget of over 12 billion U.S dollars. The Japanese government has allocated 120 billion Yen to building the Olympic stadium as of now and 30 billion Yen of the 2020 Paralympics.
On account of the adversaries imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak, the sporting world is facing a major lockdown and the summer Olympics are bound to be victimized if the virus isn’t contained by May. The IOC is going to give its final word on the matter of the Olympic postponement but the decision also demands support from the Japanese government.
