The 2020 Summer Olympic games will go on as planned. On Tuesday, International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams stated the Olympics, which will be held in Tokyo, will not be canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak. This comes on the heels of the IOC considering calling the games off due to health concerns.
“For us, the games are going ahead on the 24th of July, and we confidently expect to deliver them on that date,” Adams said at the press conference, per CBS Sports. “All the advice we’ve been given is that that can go ahead.”
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The talks of the games possibly being called off started when IOC member Dick Pound announcing the committee would make a decision as late as May.
“In and around that time, I’d say folks are going to have to ask: ‘Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo or not?’” Pound said, adding that as the games get closer, “a lot of things have to start happening. You’ve got to start ramping up your security, your food, the Olympic Village, the hotels. The media folks will be in there building their studios.”
Pound did tell the athletes to continue training. However, if the Olympics can’t be held in Tokyo, “you’re probably looking at a cancellation.”
“As far as we all know, you’re going to be in Tokyo,” he said. “All indications are at this stage that it will be business as usual. So keep focused on your sport and be sure that the IOC is not going to send you into a pandemic situation.”
One question to ask is if the Olympics can’t be held in Tokyo, couldn’t it be moved to a different location or moved it back a couple of months?
“You just don’t postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics,” he pound said. “There’s so many moving parts, so many countries and different seasons, and competitive seasons, and television seasons. You can’t just say, ‘We’ll do it in October.’”
The coronavirus outbreak started in China and it has spread to spread to 71 countries across the world including the US. According to CBS Sports, there are over 92,000 confirmed cases of the virus with over 3,100 deaths. The Summer Olympics are scheduled to being on July 24 and run through Aug. 9.
