Tokyo Olympics cancelled? 3 months until fate decided

Rumors are rumors, but when a senior International Olympic Committee member comments on the possibility of the Tokyo Olympics being cancelled, it’s serious.

In a report published by the Associated Press (AP), Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the IOC, estimates there’s a three-month window before the fate of the Olympics is decided.

The games are currently being threatened by the Coronavirus epidemic that is quickly spreading from China.

“You could certainly go to two months out if you had to. 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.”

Dick Pound, IOC Senior Member

From Pound’s statement, the IOC would wait until around the end of May and hope the virus is under control by then. If not, the Tokyo Games would likely be cancelled, not moved, postponed, or completely rescheduled.

“This is the new war and you have to face it. 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?’

You just don’t postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics. 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.”

Mainland China’s Coronavirus totals currently sit at 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths. The virus has already spread to South Korea, with additional clusters now appearing in the Middle East and Europe. There have been four deaths reported in Japan.

Chinese gymnasts impacted by Coronavirus

The Chinese gymnastics federation has already been impacted by the virus. China’s gymnasts were not allowed to compete at the Melbourne World Cup, an event with Olympic qualification implications, because of Australia’s travel restrictions related to the outbreak.

Now, the Chinese gymnasts who are set to represent their country at World Cups in the coming weeks have reportedly traveled to Doha and are training there.

@chngym‘s tweet reads, “Chinese gymnasts who are going to compete in Doha and Baku are currently all training in Doha. The American Cup representatives, Zhang Jin and Hu Xuwei, are also there. After two weeks’ practice in Doha, hopefully they will be allowed to enter the States.”

The tweet continues, “This is an extremely troubling time for the team. They have been talking to different federations to see if it’s possible to borrow their training facilities. After their international assignments, gymnasts might also be faced with a 14-day compulsory home quarantine in Beijing, which could be disruptive to their training and preparation for the Olympics. However, they don’t have many options as the team can’t afford to keep missing Olympics qualifying events.”

Although Pound reportedly didn’t sound too alarmed, he made clear the future of Tokyo 2020 is largely out of the IOC’s hands.

For now, athletes are encouraged to keep training and continue pushing for Tokyo.

“As far as we all know you’re going to be in Tokyo. 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.”

Pound has been an IOC member since 1978, 13 years longer than current President Thomas Bach.