Tokyo.- The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, currently delayed to 2021, will be cancelled if the coronavirus pandemic is not controlled, said Tuesday the chairman of the organizing committee, Yoshiro Mori, in an interview with the Japanese newspaper Nikkan Sports.Si the pandemic continues, “they will have to be annulled,” the head said, explaining that the Olympics will not be delayed again.
Last Thursday, Mori had already stressed that “thinking of both the athletes and the problems it would pose for the organization, it is technically difficult to delay them two years.”
To get the latest news about coronavirus, sign up by clicking on this space and we’ll send you the information instantly. The pandemic of the new coronavirus forced a first postponement of the Olympic Games, the opening date of which was set for July 23, 2021.Yoshiro Mori said that the battle against the virus resembles “the fight against an invisible enemy” and recalled that until now the Olympic Games were only annulled due to the war. If the pandemic is successfully controlled, “we will organize the Olympic Games in peace next year,” Mori said. Humanity is betting on that,” he added. Pressured by athletes and sports federations, Japanese organizers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed in March to postpone the Games to 2021.Organizers and the Japanese government insist that the big sporting event could be the opportunity to show the world’s triumph over the new coronavirus, but some think that a one-year postponement is not enough. It will be “extremely difficult” to hold the Games next year if a vaccine is not discovered, Japan Medical Association President Yoshitake Yokokura warned on Tuesday.
I wouldn’t say they won’t be held, but it will be very difficult, Yoshitake Yokokura added at a press conference.
Last week, a Japanese medical expert, who criticized the country’s response to coronavirus, said it was “very pessimistic” at the possibility that the Olympic Games could be held in 2021.You might also be interested: Organizing committee: The games will not be postponed againTokio 2020 publicly denies the Olympic Committee
