IOC ‘very confident’ Tokyo Games will go ahead in 2021

After promising talks with Japanese organisers, IOC president Thomas Bach says the event will be staged even without a vaccine.

IOC President Thomas Bach. Picture: AFP/IOC

International Olympic Committee officials are “very, very confident” the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games will go ahead next year after talks with Japanese organisers.

IOC president Thomas Bach said following an executive board meeting in Lausanne on Wednesday that he wanted to give encouragement to the Japanese public who may have any doubts that they should “have confidence” in the Games proceeding.

Tokyo 2020 organisers and the Japanese government had found US$280m in savings by downscaling “nice to haves” but not impacting on the Games competition or experience for the athletes. The “showcase” opening and closing ceremony budgets have remained unchanged but the tenor of the ceremonies is expected to be modest to reflect the global situation.

Mr Bach said the savings – about two per cent of the $12.6 billion Tokyo2020 budget – was significant given that most of the budget had already been spent or committed by the time the Games were postponed earlier this year.

Tokyo organisers said cuts have been made to changes in equipment and reconfiguring venues; fewer decorative banners; a reduction in the sizes of delegations; reduced transport; reduced size of hospitality areas; and cancellation of team welcome ceremonies that usually take place when a team enters the Olympic village.

Mr Bach pointed out that major events have already begun in Japan and even without a vaccine the Olympics are likely to go ahead, even though the Japanese government currently imposes strict border controls for foreigners and mandatory quarantine.

Mr Bach said he was buoyed by “two tools in the toolkit of countermeasures against the virus”, a potential vaccine or vaccines and a rapid coronavirus test.

“That is why we encourage all the national Olympic Committees and all of the athletes to prepare for the Games next year,’’ he said.

Bach is expected to travel to Japan in the coming months to meet new Japanese prime minister Yoshidide Suga to reaffirm a joint commitment to the success of the Olympics.

Mr Bach said it was too early to speculate what restrictions may be in place in ten months’ time and said even with the second wave underway in Europe big and complex sports events were being staged.

He said: “We are even more confident that at the beginning of next year we can add to the tools for counter measures we have available … this makes both organisations, the Tokyo 2020 committee and the IOC being very very confident about the opening ceremony going ahead on 23rd July next year.”

Mr Bach said organisers are working on the assumption there will be international spectators but it’s uncertain how full the stadiums can be.

The IOC executive director Christophe Dubi said there would be some clarity by the end of this year about operational issues such as transport, spectators, food and beverage.