IMAGINING CLOSED-DOOR OLYMPICS,
SOMETHING ALL DON’T WANT
Health safety is the topmost concern for organizers of the Tokyo Olympics but banning fans from the Games is “clearly something we don’t want, thus declared International Olympics Committee (OIC) chief Thomas Bach. Multiple scenarios were being considered for the rescheduled Games
including a closed-door Olympics whom fans consider one “for the books.”
The Tokyo Olympics which were due to start next week but have been postponed for a year over the Covid-19 pandemic that affected almost all nations globally.
But Bach,clearly signaled his reluctance to hold the Games at empty stadiums, now a common sight in sport as other competitions make a tentative return from virus-enforced shutdowns.
“Olympic Games behind closed doors is clearly something we do not want,” the IOC president told reporters in a video call.
“So we are working for a solution of the Olympic Games which, on one hand, is safeguarding the health of all the participants and, on the other hand, is also reflecting the Olympic spirit.”
Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have both warned that it would be hard to postpone the Games beyond 2021, raising the nightmare scenario of the first Olympics to be canceled in peacetime.
“The first priority is about the safety of all participants of the Olympic Games,” said Bach.
“For this reason, we are working now on multiple scenarios of the organization of the Games with regard to the health situation of which we do not know how it will be in one year from now.”
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike last month told media she would make a “120 percent effort” for the Games to go ahead, pledging the Olympics would be safe despite the pandemic
On Wednesday Tokyo moved its coronavirus alert to red, the highest level, after a resurgence of cases in Japan’s capital in Tokyo..#