IOC President Thomas Bach has said the International Olympic Committee was fully committed to the successful organisation of the Tokyo Summer Olympics this year, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Though much of Japan is under a state of emergency because of the third wave of infections, Bach on Wednesday said all stakeholders were committed to pressing ahead as planned with the rescheduled Games, which are due to open on July 23 after being postponed for a year because of the Covid-19.
Bach said any speculation about the Tokyo Olympics, including talk of postponement or cancellation, was not helpful, reports Reuters.
“We are losing our time and energy on speculation,” he said at a virtual news conference after the IOC’s first executive board of the year.
Asked at what stage the IOC would consider cancelling the Olympics, Bach said he would not “fuel speculation”.
“Our task is to organise Olympic Games and not to cancel Olympic Games. This is why we are working day and night to organise safe Olympic Games,” he said.
“We are not speculating whether the Games will take place. We are working on how the Games will take place,” he said, adding the IOC will issue guidelines for athletes and teams next month.
Many major issues, however, still remain unclear, including whether fans will attend or whether international visitors can travel to the country.
The IOC has already slashed the duration of athletes’ stay in Japan. They will now arrive shortly before their competitions and leave straight after in order to reduce the risk of infections.
“This I cannot tell you,” he said when asked about full stadiums.
“Our priority is to ensure safe Olympic Games and we will do whatever is needed to organise safe Olympic Games,” he said.
“Everybody would love to have full capacity stadiums and roaring crowds but if this is not possible we will respect our principle and this is the safe organisation. This is the first priority.”
The IOC has also written to all 206 national Olympic committees to contact their governments on vaccines but Bach said no athlete should be vaccinated before the priority or high-risk groups.
“We always made it clear we are not in favour of athletes jumping the queue,” Bach said.
“In the first lines must be the high-risk groups, the health care workers, and the people who keep our society alive. That is the first priority and this is a principle we have established.”
Recent polls in Japan showed around 80 per cent were opposed to the event going ahead in July and some have suggested the Games should be cancelled.
Bach defended the Olympics, saying a number of international competitions are being held during the pandemic.
“Based on the countermeasures and the experience of other events...it is clearly not irresponsible,” he said.