Tokyo begins task of reorganizing Olympics

TOKYO: Japan set about the unprecedented task of reorganizing the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Wednesday after making the tough decision to postpone the Games by a year as the coronavirus pandemic locks down one third of the planet.

The dramatic step to shift th the Olympics, never before seen in peacetime, upends every aspect o of the organization — including ve venues, security, ticketing and accommodation. co

In a move symbolic of the d difficulties now facing Tokyo, O Olympic countdown clocks in th the city switched from displaying th the number of days to go, instead si simply showing today’s date and th the time.

“It’s like taking seven years to build the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle and, with just one piece to go, having to start again but now with less time to finish,” tweeted Craig Spence, spokesman for the International Paralympic Committee.

It is not even clear exactly when the rescheduled Games will take place, with the International Olympic Committee saying the new date would be “beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021”.

Japan has framed Tokyo 2020 as the “Recovery Games” — a chance to show the world it has bounced back from the “triple disaster” in 2011 when a massive earthquake sparked a tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.

The delayed event — still to be called Tokyo 2020 — will now be a “testament to mankind’s defeat of the new virus”, said Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

He repeated that message in a Wednesday call with US President Donald Trump, in which the leaders agreed the Games would be “proof that humans have beaten the new coronavirus”, a Japanese government spokesman said.

The Olympic flame “could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present”, Japan and the IOC said in a joint statement.

The Olympic torch relay, due to begin from Fukushima Thursday, has also been postponed but the flame will stay in the area until it is safe to begin.

Organisers now have to wrestle with a host of unanswered questions: are the venues still available? What to do with ticket-holders and volunteers? How to fit the Games into a crowded 2021 sporting schedule?

The athlete’s village was due to be renovated into more than 4,000 luxury apartments, hundreds of which have already been snapped up. Tens of thousands of hotel rooms will need to be canceled and rebooked.

Japan and the organizing committee were spending $12.6 billion on the Games and experts say they may need to spend around half that again to rearrange the event — before hopefully recouping the losses when the Olympics are held.