The Summer Olympics in Tokyo that had to be postponed by one year might need to be cancelled if the coronavirus pandemic is not dealt with by summer 2021, head of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee Yoshiro Mori said in an interview with Japan’s Nikkan Sports daily published on Tuesday.
"No, in this case they will be cancelled," Mori answered the question of a reporter, asking if the Olympics could be rescheduled again.
"If such problems as wars emerged in the past, the games were cancelled. We are now fighting an invisible enemy," TASS cited the committee chair as saying.
According to him, if the games are successfully held in 2021 after the world tramples coronavirus, these competitions will be even more valuable.
The agreement to postpone the games was reached in a phone call between President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach with Abe and games chief Yoshiro Mori on March 24. The sides came to an understanding that global sport will not have enough time to recuperate from shocks caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the time left before the games were scheduled to begin. Tokyo was supposed to host the Olympics between July 24 and August 9.
The IOC was blocking postponement for a long time, primarily fearing huge financial losses. Japan, however, is most affected as Tokyo has already spent more than $12 billion to prepare for the games, according to the most modest of estimates. Experts believe that postponing the Olympics will cost advertisers $1 billion. Meanwhile, losses sustained by national Olympic committees and participating countries are still yet to be calculated.
