Moving Olympics will incur massive costs, warns chief
TOKYO 2020 organisers admit the bill to reschedule the Olympic and Paralympic Games next year will “probably be massive”.
The leading figures on the organising committee, president Yoshiro Mori and chief executive Toshiro Muto, left no doubt that the task of reorganising the biggest sporting event on Earth was going to be a challenge on an unprecedented scale.
The Games — which had been due to start on July 24 — were delayed until 2021 following a conference call between Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach as a result of the accelerating coronavirus pandemic.
The task force which must find new dates for the Games met for the first time yesterday and Muto said: “We need to secure the facilities. Not only the venues but the athletes’ village, training sites and what not.
“We need to assess whether they will be available when we need them next year. There will be additional costs that come with this — and we expect it will probably be massive.
“We are dealing with the postponement of the Games, which has never happened in history. The task is daunting.”
Mori said seven years of work would now have to be crammed into six months.
“What we have been working on for seven years came to a screeching halt just as it was about to start — and now we have to build it back again,” he said. “We are going to have to cram into about six months what we achieved in seven years so it will be difficult.
“To use rugby lingo, we now need to string phase after phase, after phase. It will not be a game of packs. Making decisions seamlessly will be crucial.”
The Games are now due to take place no later than the summer of 2021, with Bach saying on Wednesday that all other options were not being ruled out.
Muto admitted a swift decision on the new dates was key.
“We have to decide when the opening ceremonies for the Olympics and Paralympics will be,” he said.
“Without that, there are a lot of things we simply cannot do.”
The International Olympic Committee’s Boxing Task Force has, meanwhile, dismissed claims from a Turkish boxing official that it facilitated the spread of coronavirus by allowing this month’s qualifying tournament in London to go ahead.
Turkish Boxing Federation president Eyup Gozgec has said that two of his country’s boxers and their head coach have tested positive for the virus since returning from the UK.
The Boxing Task Force said: “Some news reports appeared to draw a connection between the affected participants and the Boxing Road to Tokyo European qualifier held in London.
“The London event was suspended 10 days ago, on 16 March, 2020 and the BTF is not aware of any link between the competition and the infection.
“Many participants were in independently organised training camps in Italy, Great Britain and in their home countries before the competition started on 14 March, 2020 and have returned home a while ago so it is not possible to know the source of infection.”
The Boxing Task Force was set up to run the Tokyo 2020 tournament following the expulsion of the sport’s governing body, AIBA, due to a series of financial and governmental concerns.
Gozgec, who is a member of AIBA’S executive committee, wrote: “Two of our athletes and our Turkish head coach have tested positive for the new type Covid-19 coronavirus after returning to Turkey from London.
“All of them are in treatment now and thankfully they are in good condition.
“This is the disastrous result of the irresponsibility of the IOC Task Force, this virus has been around since December 2019.
“Therefore, it is inevitable to ask why the European qualification event was not postponed before it even took place.”