Japan trumps Donald’s comment

Tokyo, March 13: President Donald Trump’s suggestion to postpone the Tokyo Olympics for a year because of the spreading coronavirus was immediately shot down by Japan’s Olympic minister.

“The IOC and the organising committee are not considering cancellation or a postponement, absolutely not at all,” Seiko Hashimoto, an Olympic bronze medalist, told a news conference on Friday in Tokyo.

“I just can’t see having no people there. In other words, not allowing people. Maybe, and this is just my idea, maybe they postpone it for a year,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

“We will put in our maximum effort so that athletes will have no confusion or uncertainty,” Hashimoto said.

The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo organisers have stayed on message since the viral outbreak in

China three months ago spread across Asia and then the globe: The Games will open as schedule on July 24.

Television broadcasters and sponsors have billions invested in the Olympics, and the crowded international sports calendar has little space for pushing the games back a year.

Holding the Olympics without fans has been floated, as has simply cancelling the Olympics, which has only happened during wartime.

Hashimoto competed in four Winter Olympics as a speed skater, winning bronze in 1992, and three Summer Olympics as a cyclist.

A cancellation or postponement will ripple in thousands of directions, hitting sponsor, television, 11,000 Olympic and 4,400 Paralympic athletes, staffs, airlines, hotels, and $1 billion lost in ticket sales. It also hurts 80,000 unpaid volunteers who will miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The IOC oversaw an Olympic flame-lighting ceremony on Thursday in Greece, another sign it hopes to go ahead in fourand-a-half-month. The flame is to arrive in Japan on March 20 and will begin a four-month relay around the country on March 26.

The International Olympic Committee and the organising committee are not considering cancellation or a postponement, absolutely not at all. We will put in our maximum effort so that athletes will have no confusion or uncertainty. — SEIKO HASHIMOTO, Japan’s Olympic Minister on US president Donald Trump’s suggestion of postponing the Olympics