IOC not weighing ‘drastic’ decision
Group dissuades any talk of delaying July start in Tokyo
The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday it remains “fully committed” to staging the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and sought to discourage speculation that the event could be delayed until later in the year or the summer of 2021.
Despite the continued spread of the new coronavirus as the scheduled July 24 beginning of the Tokyo Games draws closer, the IOC said “there is no need for any drastic decisions at this stage, and any speculation at this moment would be counterproductive.”
The IOC communique came a day after Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his country hopes to stick with the Games schedule “as proof that the human race will conquer the new coronavirus, and I gained support for that from the G-7 leaders.”
“The health and well-being of all those involved in the
preparations for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is our No. 1 concern,” said IOC president Thomas Bach. “All measures are being taken to safeguard the safety and interests of athletes, coaches and support teams. We are an Olympic community. We support one another in good times and in difficult times. This Olympic solidarity defines us as a community.”
The spread of COVID-19 has resulted in dozens of national and international event cancellations and in the United States has sent athletes in search of alternate training sites as university-owned facilities and some private clubs have closed their doors.
Despite those challenges, “The IOC encourages all athletes to continue to prepare for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 as best they can. … This is an unprecedented situation for the whole world, and our thoughts are with all those affected by this crisis.”
Michael Payne, the IOC’s former marketing and broadcast rights director, said the IOC announcement was a practical response to lingering uncertainty about how the world will look in July.
“China has started coming out of this, and Japan may be getting over the hurdle,” Payne said. “The question mark is how long does it take Europe and how long does it take America. It would be a crying shame to call it off today and to find out that in July, everybody is all through this. That’s not to say that you wait until July. The IOC is in close communication with the World Health Organization and will carefully track things.”
There is not, Payne said, “a magical date” at which the IOC must make a decision on whether to proceed as scheduled. But the closer events move to late July, “it becomes more complicated,” he added.
“The IOC has a long history of challenges prior to every Olympics where either media or politicians are saying ‘cancel the Games’ or ‘make a decision’ or whatever,” Payne said. “The IOC is saying that the situation is serious, but let’s see how it plays out.
“I don’t think media or political pressure will force the IOC to make a decision ahead of its time. Their focus is first and foremost to ensure that the Games will take place for the athletes.”
Meanwhile, Olympic historian John MacAloon of the University of Chicago said he believed the most
likely outcomes were that the Games would proceed in July without spectators or that they would be canceled.
“At present, postponement, even just into early autumn, does not seem particularly feasible,” MacAloon said in an email. “Postponement to 2021 seems out of the question.”
However, Ed Hula, publisher of Around the Rings and a longtime Olympics observer, interpreted Abe’s comments following the G-7 meeting as “leaving the door open” to delaying the Olympics until the fall, noting that the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo took place in October.
“I think they would try to go for 2020 for a number of reasons, including the fact that contracts with sponsors will still be in place until the end of the year,” Hula said. “Other sports, including the Kentucky Derby and the Boston Marathon, are being rescheduled, and the IOC would do well sooner than later to consider whether that is an option they want.”
Delays might alter the nature and scope of the Olympics, he said, “But this is a new world, postcoronavirus.”
Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports and a longtime broadcast consultant, said that if the Games are not able to be staged in late July, he believes the IOC will opt to delay them until July 2021.
“I don’t think you can stage the Olympics without spectators,” Pilson said. “That decision was made when the NBA considered it, the NHL considered it and the NCAA Tournament considered it, and they all decided otherwise.”
Even without spectators, Pilson said, the number of support personnel required to stage an Olympic Games would be in the tens of thousands, a number sufficient to put athletes at risk if COVID-19 is not sufficiently contained by July.
An autumn Olympics, he noted, would conflict with television schedules in the United States, where NBC is committed to Sunday night NFL games. Also, advertisers purchased commercial time in July to promote sales initiatives for the fall, and the economy may not be positioned by then to support the ad campaigns associated with the Olympics.
“If you put it off for a year, the Olympics have time to reset and reposition, the athletes can get back into shape, the IOC gets its (television) rights fees,” Pilson said. “It’s the safest possible decision.”
The IOC in February established a task force to monitor plans for the Tokyo Games and said its decision on whether to proceed on schedule “will not be determined by financial interests.”
While organizers await word on efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, international federations have delayed events around the world, including gymnastics and diving meets scheduled for April in Tokyo, that were designed to help determine competition slots for the Olympics.
Fifty-seven percent of competition slots have already been determined and the IOC said it will adapt qualification procedures as needed.
The International Gymnastics Federation event in April, as an example, was designed to determine which nations would be able to send an additional athlete to join the four-member national teams at the Tokyo Olympics.
With that event’s cancellation, and with other federations facing similar questions about which countries will be allowed to have athletes participating in specific sports, the IOC said it would publish updated qualification guidelines by the beginning of April.