International, Australian Olympic Committees rubbish claims Tokyo Olympics will be cancelled
The International and Australian Olympic Committees have hit back at reports the 2021 Games could be canned, adamant the event will go ahead.
Olympics
Don't miss out on the headlines from Olympics. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Australia’s Olympic athletes have been warned that their family and closest friends are likely to be among the first casualties if the Tokyo Olympics goes ahead later this year, but that’s the least of their worries.
While Japanese officials have not made any formal announcements yet about whether spectators will be allowed, highly placed sources have said foreign fans are almost certain to get the chop as part of the secret plan to permit local spectators into stadiums.
An announcement is expected in March but Australia’s elite athletes have already been told to tell their friends and families to stay at home and watch on television.
That heads-up was the bad news.
Kayo is your ticket to the best sport streaming Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
The good news for anxious Australian athletes is that while Tokyo will hold a scaled down, no-frills version, at least the Games will still go ahead, despite fresh media reports they were on the verge of being cancelled.
Officials have tried to ignore the flood of rumours doing the rounds but the latest claims have triggered a strong and instant rebuke from Olympic bosses all around the world.
“We have at this moment, no reason whatsoever to believe that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on the 23rd of July in the Olympic stadium in Tokyo,” the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said.
“This is why there is no Plan B and this is why we are fully committed to make these Games safe and successful.”
Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates, who is also the chairman of the IOC’s Coordination Committee for Tokyo, also shot down suggestions the Games were not going ahead this year.
Coates should know. He is one of the key players organising the rescheduled Olympics and is in daily contact with Japanese officials, including Yoshiro Morito, the former Prime Minister now in charge of the Tokyo 2021 organising committee.
Coates told News Corp Australia he was straight on the phone to his Japanese counterparts after reading a report in The Times of London claiming the Japanese government was ready to pull the plug on 2021 and instead bid for 2032, against Southeast Queensland.
“There’s no substance to what’s been said,” Coates said.
“That’s the message.
“They are preparing with everything as normal. Including worst case scenarios and counter measures to deliver the Games.
“It’s been noted that a lot of these reports have been coming from overseas. None of them are coming from Japan.”
Speculation about the fate of the Games has been swirling around for months but shows no sign of slowing down with today marking six months to go before the Opening Ceremony.
That’s worried Australian health experts, who are already deeply concerned about the mental well-being of Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls after been notified about the sudden spike in athletes and staff contacting suicide prevention hotlines during the lockdown.
More and more elite athletes have been publicly speaking out about their mental health concerns on social media with many still waiting to know when their qualifying events will resume.
The AOC is so concerned that it sent a letter to athletes and staff on Friday warning them not to pay any attention to false reports while updating them on the latest restrictions they can expect to face in Tokyo.
“It is not an easy journey, but we remain very confident that the plans being put in place will ensure that the Games proceed,“ they were told in the letter, seen by News Corp Australia.
The constant theme from officials is that the only way to make the Tokyo Games safe enough to go ahead is by making massive changes - mostly to the look and feel of the Games - not to the competition.
“This is about the athletes,” the AOC chief executive Matt Carroll told News Corp Australia.
“They’ve been training so hard during the pandemic so we’ve got to do everything we can so they can compete at the Games.
“It’s challenging, without a shadow of a doubt, but that’s what we do and that’s what we’ve go to do.”
Athletes have now been notified that they will not be allowed into the Olympic Village more than five days before their competition starts and will have to leave 48 hours after their events end.
All athletes will have to test negative to COVID in the final 72 hours before they head to Tokyo, and will be regularly tested while they are over there.
Athletes have also been reminded to get vaccinated, if they can, though they will face the same quarantine rules as everyone else when they return to Australia.
‘Too difficult’ to host the Games
— Richard Lloyd, The Times
The Japanese government has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled and the focus is now on securing the Games for the city in 2032, the next available year.
According to a senior member of the ruling coalition, there is agreement that the Games are doomed. The aim is to find a face-saving way of announcing the cancellation that leaves open the possibility of Tokyo playing host at a later date.
“No one wants to be the first to say so but the consensus is that it’s too difficult,” the source said.
“Personally I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Publicly the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Japanese government insist that the 32nd Games, already postponed by one year, can go ahead.
“We will have full anti-infection measures in place and proceed with preparation with a determination to achieve the Games that can deliver hope and courage throughout the world,” Yoshihide Suga, the prime minister, told parliament on Monday.
The Australian Olympic Committee also released a statement today saying they believed the games would go ahead.
“Both Japanese Prime Minister Suga and IOC President Bach have this week strongly reaffirmed their commitment to the Tokyo Olympic Games going ahead in July this year,” it said.
“The AOC is continuing its planning to ensuring the Australian Olympic Team arrives in Tokyo, competes and returns home safe and COVID-free.
“The AOC, Federal Government, Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council are continuing to progress the candidature for the Olympic Games to be held in Queensland in 2032 – and that process continues.”
However, according to the source, the winter wave of the coronavirus, which has led a state of emergency in Japan’s biggest cities, has tipped the balance.
Opinion polls show that 80 per cent of Japanese are against the Games going ahead in July and August.
The Australian Open, due to begin on February 8, is beset by problems. More than 1200 have flown to Melbourne for the tennis tournament but cases have been detected and some players have been confined to hotels.
The cancellation of the Olympics would be a financial disaster for Japan, which has spent at least dollars 25 billion on preparations, three quarters of it public money.
The aim is to maintain the facade of battling determinedly to go ahead in the hope that when they are inevitably cancelled, the 2032 Games will be given to Tokyo out of sympathy.
Paris is due to host the Games in 2024 and Los Angeles has already been chosen as the venue for 2028.
Brisbane and south-east Queensland had been a frontrunner to host the 2032 Olympics, but could lose out in the case Tokyo is handed the bid in sympathy.
A decision on which city will stage the Olympics in 2032 is expected to be taken by 2025.
“Suga is not emotionally invested in the Games,” the senior source said.
“But they want to show that they are ready to go, so that they will get another chance.”
The Olympics were called off in 1916, 1940 and 1944 but this would be the first cancellation in peacetime.
Last year the decision to postpone was made after Canada and Australia announced that they would not send athletes if they went ahead.
“If someone like President Biden was to say that US athletes cannot go, then we could say, ‘Well, now it is impossible’,” the senior source added.
The latest idea being pushed by the IOC is a televised Games with athletes but no spectators. This would suit the IOC, which makes most of its income from broadcast rights, but not the Japanese authorities, which would make money from ticket sales. Such an option has been ruled out by Yoshiro Mori, a former prime minister who runs the Tokyo organising committee. A problem for Mr Suga is that Mr Mori, 83, a powerbroker in his Liberal Democratic Party, has lung cancer. To some in the party, cancellation would rob an ailing man of his final dream.
— Originally published in The Times
Originally published as International, Australian Olympic Committees rubbish claims Tokyo Olympics will be cancelled
New coaches to lead rowing into future after Paris disaster
Rowing Australia has installed new men’s and women’s head coaches to lead its program to the LA and Brisbane Games after its worst Olympic return in more than 30 years.
Healy takes Olympic legend to task over commentary slight
Swimming legend Ian Thorpe has found himself in the crosshair’s of Australian cricket great Alyssa Healy – who has taken umbrage at a piece of commentary from the Paris Olympics.