Flak hits Bach for floating idea of spring Olympics
THOMAS BACH, the president of the International Olympic Committee, risks a further backlash from athletes after raising the prospect of the Tokyo Games taking place next spring.
This summer’s Olympics have been postponed until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. New dates have not yet been confirmed. The IOC announced on Tuesday that the rescheduled Games would be held ‘no later than summer 2021’. It was widely assumed they would begin next July, a year later than planned.
But yesterday Bach said: ‘This is not restricted just to the summer months. All the options are on the table before or including the summer of 2021.’
The idea of a spring date is popular with some IOC and Tokyo officials because it is Japan’s cherry blossom season, one of the country’s major tourist attractions.
But veteran British hurdler Dai Greene, 33, tweeted: ‘When do we get the chance to compete and qualify for a spring Games? This summer will be sparse at best. Someone have a word.’
Olympic broadcasters, led by US network NBC, would also try to block a spring event because it would clash with the American basketball and European football seasons, affecting ratings and participation in the Games from stars of those sports.
It is therefore still most likely Tokyo 2020 will be rescheduled for next summer. The IOC have set up a taskforce and will today speak to all 33 summer Olympic sports federations about revising next year’s calendar.
‘It’s very challenging,’ Bach said. ‘We should come to a solution as soon as possible. But the first priority should be the quality of this decision.’
Yoshiro Mori, the president of the Tokyo organising committee, said: ‘The general target is summer of next year. But we have to go through scheduling, international events. Many things will have to be adjusted before we come up with a certain timeframe.’
Bach also warned that he could not rule out the Games being postponed again, or cancelled altogether, if coronavirus is still spreading next year.
‘We have established this principle which we have always been following and which we will be following in the future — that we want and we will organise a Games only in a safe environment for all the participants,’ he said.
Bach refused to apologise for his handling of the IOC’s response to the coronavirus crisis, in which they did not even mention the prospect of postponement until Sunday. That led to widespread criticism from athletes and nations, with Canada and
Australia announcing they would boycott the Olympics if they took place as planned.
Experts predict that delaying the Games could cost organisers £2billion. One major issue is the Olympic village. Tokyo’s athlete accommodation was due to be converted into apartments after the Paralympics finished this September. Many of the 5,600 units have already been sold although residents are not due to move in until March 2023.
‘This is one of the many thousands of questions that this taskforce will have to address,’ Bach said. ‘We will do whatever we can for there to be an Olympic village in the traditional form.
‘But we are at an unprecedented situation and an unprecedented challenge and I guess that these postponed Olympic Games will need sacrifices and compromises. We have to find a best possible solution under the circumstances we are living in.
‘This is like a huge jigsaw puzzle and every piece has to fit. If you take out one piece, the whole puzzle is destroyed. Everything has to come together and everything is important.’