Explainer | Tokyo 2020 Olympics: 30 days until the opening ceremony and the questions that won’t go away

The IOC is determined to stage the Summer Games, at whatever cost, but forget the fun and frivolity

How to watch, what are the new sports, and why can’t they just postpone the Games for another year?

Reading Time:5 minutes

A man looks at the Olympic Rings at the Japanese Olympic Museum near the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 23 Jun 2021Updated: 8:00am, 23 Jun 2021

It’s 30 days before the opening ceremony of the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. While much has been clarified about whether the Games are going ahead or not – apparently they are – the medical community in Japan and elsewhere remain vocal in their calls for the Games to be postponed – again – or cancelled. The opening ceremony on July 23 is still likely to happen but we can look forward to more uncertainty, doubts and reassurances. So, what exactly do we know about the Games, and what’s left hanging in the air?

Will the Tokyo Olympics be cancelled this year?

No, probably not, unlikely, maybe, not sure. Why the uncertainty? Well, you have a group regarded as experts saying the Games should not be held because of the Covid-19 pandemic and in a normal world, people listen to experts. The folks running the Games, though, say they are going ahead anyway, even though they mostly likely agree with the experts. For the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – the only entity with the right to cancel the Games – there is too much at stake, in the form of almost US$4 billion in broadcast revenue.

A clause in the hosting contract allows only the Olympic body to terminate the host city contract if it believed the safety of participants would be “seriously threatened or jeopardised”. Clearly, the IOC does not think it has come to that yet. So, to answer the question, no, the Tokyo Olympics will not be cancelled.

Tokyo 2020 organising committee president Seiko Hashimoto (left) Japanese Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa (right) and IOC president Thomas Bach, on a screen, attend a five-party online meeting at Harumi Island Triton Square Tower Y in Tokyo. Photo: AP

If the Games were pushed back for a year, why can’t they be postponed for another?

The Olympic Village, located in Harumi of Tokyo’s central Chūō area, was scheduled to be redeveloped into an 18-hectare luxury property project when the Games were originally set to close in August 2020. The prospective condo owners were already disgruntled by the deferred move-in date.