If pandemic remains a threat next year, Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be cancelled: Games chief

The Tokyo Olympic Games which was to take place this year has been shifted to next year due to the coronavirus outbreak. However, if the pandemic continues, the Summer Games will be cancelled, the organising committee’s president said in comments published Tuesday.

The COVID-19 pandemic has already forced a year-long delay of the Games, and it is now scheduled to open on July 23, 2021. However, Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori said no further postponement was possible.

In an interview with Japan’s Nikkan Sports daily, Mori was asked if the Olympics could be delayed until 2022 if the virus is not controlled, and he replied saying: “No.”

“In that case, it’s cancelled,” Mori said.

Mori added that the Games had been cancelled previously during wartime and compared the battle against coronavirus to “fighting an invisible enemy”.

If the virus is successfully contained, “we’ll hold the Olympics in peace next summer”, he added. “Mankind is betting on it.”

The postponement of the Tokyo Games only took place after athletes and sports associations put pressure. The Japanese organisers and the International Olympic Committee agreed in March to a year-long postponement of the Games.

On Tuesday, head of Japan Medical Association said it would be “exceedingly difficult” to hold the Games if a vaccine is not found.

“I would not say that they should not be held, but it would be exceedingly difficult,” Yoshitake Yokokura told reporters at a briefing.