With calls for Tokyo Olympics 2020 to be postponed getting thicker and thicker amid Coronavirus outbreak a senior International Olympic Committee member has revealed that decision has already been made.
A Veteran IOC member Dick Pound on Monday reportedly said that the Tokyo 2020 Olympics games will be postponed in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking in an interview to USA Today, Pound said: “On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided. The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”
The Canadian further added that the committee will announce the next steps soon. “It will come in stages,” he said. “We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”
The International Olympic Committee on Sunday had said that postponing the 2020 Olympics is one of its options as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, but that cancellation of the Tokyo showpiece was “not on the agenda”. The IOC has faced strong pressure to push back the Games, scheduled from July 24 to August 9, from sporting federations and athletes worried about the health risk as the COVID-19 global death tally went past 13,000 on Sunday.
IOC president Thomas Bach said a decision on when the Games take place would be made “within the next four weeks”. “Human lives take precedence over everything, including the staging of the Games,” Bach wrote in an open letter to athletes.
“We have, as indicated before, been thinking in different scenarios and are adapting them almost day by day. “A final decision about the date of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 now would still be premature,” he said.
(With agency inputs)