Trump’s Olympics suggestion shot down by Japan

US 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 medallist, told a news conference yesterday in Tokyo.

The International Olympic Committee and Tokyo organisers have stayed on message since the viral outbreak in China three months ago spread across Asia and people there. In other words, not allowing people,” Trump told reporters yesterday at the White House. “Maybe, and this is just my idea, maybe they postpone it for a year.”

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.

“As best we can — so athletes will have no confusion or uncertainty — we will put in our maximum effort,” Hashimoto said. She 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 sponsors, television, 11,000 Olympic and 4400 Paralympic athletes, staff, airlines, hotels, and $1 billion lost in ticket sales.

The IOC oversaw an Olympic flame-lighting ceremony on Thursday in Greece, another sign it hopes to go ahead in 4½ months. The flame is to arrive in Japan on March 20 and will begin a fourmonth relay around the country on March 26. Tokyo organisers have downsized the torch arrival ceremony and will announce a week before the relay begins if crowds will be limited, or the route will be changed.