The International Olympic Committee (IOC) remains fully committed to staging the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 and is considering multiple scenarios for them to take place safely, IOC president Thomas Bach said on Wednesday.
Japan and the IOC postponed the Tokyo Games until 2021 in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, organisers have spoken of trying to simplify the event – which had been due to start on July 24 – to reduce costs and ensure athletes’ safety.
Bach said that the IOC’s coordination commission had reported “very good work in progress” and that more details would be given to a full IOC session which will take place by video conference on Friday.
“We remain fully committed to celebrating Tokyo 2020 next year in July and August,” Bach told reporters in a conference call.
IOC declares, ‘fully committed to host Tokyo Olympics in 2021’
Bach also emphasized a wish for the event to be “frugal” and only focus on the essentials.
“We want these Olympic Games to be frugal Games, concentrating on the essentials and the spirit and the message of these Olympic Games.
“The spirit of the Olympic Games is about the athletes and sports excellence.
“It’s about unity.
“It’s about bringing the entire world together.”
“The entire IOC is following the principle we established before the postponement (in March) that the first priority is about the safety of all participants.”
“We continue to be guided by the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and based on this advice we are preparing multiple scenarios,” he added. “We don’t know the health situation one year from now.”
DAKAR YOUTH OLYMPICS 2022 POSTPONED BY 4 YEARS
Thomas Bach also said that the IOC had agreed with host nation Senegal to postpone the 2022 Youth Olympic Games until 2026.
Bach said the delay was discussed two days ago in a telephone conversation with Senegal President Macky Sall.
The Youth Summer Games would be the first Olympics organized in Africa.
“This was really too heavy workload for everybody,” Bach said, citing the postponed Tokyo Olympic now opening in July 2021. The Beijing Winter Olympics are due to be held in February 2022.