John Coates praises Japanese resilience after confirmation Olympics will go ahead

IOC vice president John Coates has hailed Japan as it’s confirmed the Tokyo Olympic Games will go ahead.

IOC Chairman John Coates. Picture: Getty

International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates has hailed the ability of the Japanese people to overcome adversity as Olympic organisers and Japanese politicians confirm the Tokyo Olympic Games will go ahead.

Mr Coates has brought forward his plans and will travel to Japan to oversee Tokyo Olympic preparations from June 15, while the IOC president Thomas Bach will arrive 11 days before the Games opening ceremony on July 23.

Mr Coates, the Australian Olympic Committee president, is the IOC’s co-ordination chair overseeing the Games.

He has reinforced the strict countermeasures that will be undertaken during the Games to quell a nervous Japanese public.

Mr Bach announced three-quarters of Olympic athletes will be vaccinated before arrival in Japan, but Mr Coates believes the figure may be more than 80 per cent.

In the meantime Japan has been slow to rollout its vaccines, with only over 65’s and health workers currently eligible for the jab. However the pace will ramp up as 100m doses of Pfizer are due in the country in weeks.

Mr Coates said in a letter issued to athletes, national Olympic committees and international sporting federations on that two groups of people should be upmost in mind.

He wrote: “In all of this there are two groups that we should never forget.

“The Japanese people who have demonstrated their perseverance through their history. It is only because of this ability of the Japanese people to overcome adversity that these Olympic Games, under these very difficult circumstances, are possible. And secondly the athletes of the world who have been dreaming of and preparing for this moment their entire lives. This is why these Games need to take place and why these Games will resonate around the world.’’

Mr Coates’ letter included messages from the Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike providing assurances about the safety of hosting the Games.

Mrs Hashimoto said: “As the world faces so many shared challenges, the mission of these Games will be to point the way to how we can over come them and to pass that onto the next generation’’.

Mr Coates said that the World Health Organisation health emergencies executive director Dr Michael Ryan had welcomed the Games’ countermeasures, which include testing masks, social distancing and in most cases, highly limited movements between the Olympic village and other accommodations and the venues.

Mr Coates said the organisation of the Games also was drawing on the experience of hundreds of sports events that have taken place safely across the world over the past year, “with minimal risk to participants and also, importantly, the local population”.

More than half of people polled in Japan say the Games should be cancelled, but this opposition has been dropping over the past few months as details about the Games counter measures have become clearer and local vaccinations ramp up.

Around 11,000 athletes will compete in the Games, but the numbers of sports officials and team support staff have been slashed with only those essential to the Games’ operations being given accreditations. International spectators have also been banned.