Tokyo 2020: UK Athletics and USA Swimming call for Olympics cancellation amid coronavirus battle

Heads of UK and US sporting bodies add voices to concerns over Tokyo 2020 going ahead

World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe admits ‘nobody is saying we will be going to the Games come what may’

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A woman wearing a protective face mask, following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), walks past the Olympic rings in front of the Japan Olympics Museum in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Published: 3:24pm, 21 Mar 2020Updated: 3:24pm, 21 Mar 2020

Calls to cancel the Tokyo Olympic Games, which are set to start on July 24, are growing by the day with two more governing bodies voicing their concerns.

Both UK Athletics, which is in charge of track and field for Great Britain, and USA Swimming have added their weight to calls to change the calendar because of the coronavirus pandemic.

While a growing number of high profile sporting events have been cancelled, suspended or postponed in recent weeks, including Uefa Euro 2020 and this summer’s Copa America football tournaments, the official line from Olympics organisers is that the Games are going ahead as planned and it is too soon to decide otherwise.

This was reiterated on Friday by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. “The decision about the games doesn’t lie directly with us,” USOPC head Susanne Lyons told the media. “It lies with the World Health Organisation, the Japanese government and the IOC.”

This prompted US Swimming head Tim Hinchey to write to the USOPC.