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Jonathan White

It is now almost certain that the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games will not go ahead as planned.
The International Olympic Committee has confirmed it is discussing alternative plans and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has admitted to parliament that the Games could be postponed if they cannot go ahead in their “complete form” unaffected by the coronavirus.
“If that becomes difficult, we may have no option but to consider postponing the Games,” Abe said.
This represents a sea change from Abe’s government and the Tokyo Olympic Games Organising Committee, run by his predecessor Yoshiro Mori, who now admits that the Olympic torch relay may be cancelled ahead of its proposed start on Thursday.

#TeamCanada will not send athletes to Games in summer 2020 due to COVID-19 risks.

https://t.co/AKmI2rbyeO pic.twitter.com/8McEbgirVp
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) March 23, 2020

Until now they had just fanned the flames of speculation. Everyone involved had reiterated time and again that it was business as usual with plans to open the Games on July 24.
Where there was dissent or concession to the coronavirus, it was stamped out with a public apology here and a denial there. Tokyo 2020 was happening was the only message. Like Pep Guardiola at Barcelona, they had plan A and if plan A was not working? The solution was more of plan A.




That was unless the IOC and the WHO decided otherwise, as they stressed.
The Tokyo 2020 organisers made it clear that the decision is ultimately out of their hands, that it rested with the IOC, but even last week IOC president Thomas Bach said there was “No plan B.”
Only IOC veteran Dick Pound has admitted the possibility of change, first in February to say it might have to be cancelled, then to admit it could be postponed.


There is a view that local organisers, including the man who runs the country, did not want to lose face. That they are now holding their breath for the IOC to make the call.
They better have big lungs.
The IOC announced that they hoped to have a decision in the next four weeks. That mid-April deadline became public on Sunday after the IOC’s executive board met.

Mori tells reporters in Tokyo that #Tokyo2020 torch relay might be cancelled. Decision has to be made by Thursday morning, when it is due to start #Olympics #coronavirus
— Jack Tarrant (@TarrantJack) March 23, 2020

That was Sunday in Europe and the middle of the night in Japan. Not easy for the hosts to take hold of that headline when they are all in bed. The global news cycle does not rest so would it not have been better for some synergy between the IOC and the country that has paid them so much for the right to host their flagship event?
By the time Abe had spoken to parliament and Mura had stood in front of reporters to repeat how the Tokyo committee’s views were exactly the same as what the IOC had said overnight, the story had got well away from both parties.
Canada’s bold decision to say they would not be sending athletes to Tokyo unless the Games moved to 2021 was dominating the headlines. That came on Sunday evening in Canada, when Japan was getting up for work and dealing with the IOC news, no doubt.
Abe admits Tokyo 2020 could be postponed as countries pull out of Olympics
Australia followed suit in pulling out, saying they could not put together a delegation of athletes in the circumstances.
Even Sebastian Coe, the man who headed the London 2012 Games, spoke out in his role as the head of World Athletics asking for the Games to be moved. As voices go, the one speaking on behalf of the track and field athletes that provide the main attraction for the Games is a worry for the IOC.
It is hard to believe that a man in his position, with his connections, had not raised these concerns privately before writing a public letter to Bach. What did he hear that he had to go public?

No ambiguity here. @CBCNews has obtained a letter written by Seb Coe, the head of track and field's world governing body to Thomas Bach, the IOC boss. A unanimous "request that the Games be moved". @CBCOlympics pic.twitter.com/gtxyDBX74B
— Stephanie Jenzer (@StephJenzer) March 22, 2020

This situation had not crept up on the IOC and the Tokyo organisers. For weeks, the media have been discussing what might happen and the Japanese public expressed an overwhelming disbelief that the Games could go ahead as planned.
They had time to get in front of it. The rest of the sports world did.
Euro 2020 and this summer’s Copa America took the step to move their tournaments a year. Now Tokyo 2020, or should that be Tokyo 2021 planners, are battling to find space in next year’s calendar.
Turn Tokyo 2020 into year-long 2021 Olympic Games festival
For lots of sports it took the coronavirus to reach them directly, but that has already happened with Tokyo committee deputy Kozo Tashima testing positive.
The decision to postpone the Games when it comes – and it has to be when not if now – is already an unmitigated PR disaster for the IOC and Tokyo Olympics.
They could have owned the story. Instead, it has been written for them. Right now it is the Olympics where Canada took a stand and saved the Games, who knows where it will be when the IOC finally makes the call.

The IOC is confident that it will have finalised the scenario planning for the Olympic Games #Tokyo2020 within the next 4 vweeks. - Cancellation of the Games would not solve any of the problems or help anybody. Therefore, cancellation is not on the agenda. https://t.co/pmfVBs9zzK
— Christian Klaue (@ChKlaue) March 22, 2020

If that is in four weeks, as they suggested, then everyone could have pulled out by then. Why risk looking even more stupid?
The whole situation has at least embodied the original spirit of the Olympics. It has been downright amateur.

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Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

IOC’s Tokyo 2020 indecision is a PR disaster on an Olympic scale

Will there be a “1” soon appearing in 2020 on these Olympic billboards? Photo: EPA

Tokyo 2020: Canada and Australia pull out of Olympics as coronavirus crisis deepens

A man wearing a protective face mask, following the coronavirus outbreak, looks through the Olympic rings in front of the Japan Olympics Museum in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Tokyo 2020: Hong Kong will stand by IOC decision on postponing Olympics

A man wearing a mask takes pictures of an Olympic Rings monument in Tokyo. Photo: EPA

Hong Kong's athletes, government representatives and senior management of Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong pose for group photo during the flag presentation ceremony for the Hong Kong, China Delegation to the 18th Asian Games at New Town Plaza, Sha Tin. (front row, L to R) Tri Tharyat, Consul-General of the Republic of Indonesia in HKSAR; Lau Kong-wah, Secretary for Home Affairs; Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Timothy Fok Tsun-ting, President of Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China (SF&OC); Herman Hu Shao-ming, Chef de Mission of Hong Kong, China Delegation to the 18th Asian Game and Ronnie Wong Man-chiu, Secretary General of SF&OC. 29JUL18 SCMP / Felix Wong

Ronnie Wong Man-chiu, Honorary Secretary General of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, meets the press after an Olympic committee's extraordinary general meeting on recent athletes' complaints on the Karatedo Federation of unfair selection policies and other serious issues at Olympic House in So Kon Po. 26MAR18 SCMP / Chan Kin-wa

A moment of joy in Cairo. From left: Ryan Choi, Cheung Siu-lun, Cheung Ka-long and Lawrence Ng.

Olympics - Torch relay of the Olympic flame for Tokyo 2020 - Sparta, Greece - March 13, 2020 US actor Gerard Butler takes part in the Olympic flame torch relay for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics REUTERS/Vassilis Psomas NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.

Coronavirus: Tokyo 2020 organisers quietly plan for potential Olympic delay, sources say

A man wearing a protective face masks looks to The Olympic rings in front of the Japan Olympics Museum in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Photo taken March 4, 2020, shows gold medals for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (two in middle, two on right) and Paralympics manufactured at the Japan Mint in Osaka. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

Sport

Other Sport


Organisers lose control as four-week deadline risks other nations following Canada and Australia in pulling out
While other sports have cancelled or rescheduled, the message from Tokyo has been the Games are going ahead as planned



Tokyo 2020 is a PR disaster on an Olympic scale – organisers lose control as four-week deadline risks other nations following Canada and Australia in pulling out.


IOC (International Olympic Committee)

Japan

Coronavirus pandemic

Shinzo Abe

Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

World Health Organization (WHO)

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Faster, Higher, Stronger

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}Faster, Higher, Stronger | IOC’s Tokyo 2020 indecision is a PR disaster on an Olympic scale

Faster, Higher, Stronger | IOC’s Tokyo 2020 indecision is a PR disaster on an Olympic scale