Postponement of 2020 Tokyo Olympics inevitable, concedes IOC official

With the number of Covid-19 cases around the world crossing the 380,000 on Monday, it looks like the International Olympic Committee, who were once stubborn that the events will go ahead as scheduled, have finally changed their mind.

According to Veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound, it is all but confirmed that the event will not start on July 24, but the IOC are only set to finalize the date and make an official announcement at the end of the four-week deadline they have given themselves, taking into account the various complications involved. 

"On the basis of the information the IOC has, the postponement has been decided. The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on 24 July, that much I know,” Pound told USA today, reported BBC Sport.

"It will come in stages. We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”

Meanwhile, Hugh Robertson, chairman of the British Olympic Association, has revealed that Great Britain will ‘shortly be joining’ both Canada and Australia, who on Monday threatened to pull out of the Olympics should the event not be postponed. Robertson feels that there is ‘no way’ the games could be conducted in July in the wake of what’s currently going on and believes that even if the situation betters, there won’t be sufficient time for the athletes to prepare for the global extravaganza. 

"We can't see any way that this can go ahead as things are constituted," said Robertson. "I expect we will be joining Canada and Australia shortly. I think it is very simple. If the virus continues as predicted by the government, I don't think there is any way we can send a team. First, I don't see any way that the athletes and Team GB could be ready by then. Elite training facilities are perfectly understandably and quite correctly closed around the country, so there is no way they could undertake the preparation they need to get ready for a Games.

"Secondly, there is the appropriateness of holding an Olympic Games at a time like this. We are actually in a process where we are talking to all our sports. We will complete that over the next couple of days. We have already said to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that we think their four-week pause is absolutely the right thing to do."