Sebastian Coe, the Olympic track champion of the 1980s, head of World Athletics and Britain’s most senior Olympic figure, has called on the International Olympic Committee to announce a postponement decision on Tokyo 2020 Games “very quickly” while assuring athletes that the big event will not take place any time this year.
Lord Coe’s reaction within hours of the IOC’s latest moves to delay a decision for a further month stands in stark contrast to the silence from FINA leaders, whose last word on a rapidly developing story came four days ago before a wave of the most significant developments on Tokyo 2020.
Postponing to later this year, beyond the July 24 – August 9 period the Games were supposed to have been held on is “neither feasible nor desirable”, said Lord Coe, adding in a BBC radio interview:
“No-one wants to see the Olympic Games postponed but as I have said publicly, we cannot hold the event at all costs, certainly not at the cost of athlete safety, and a decision on the Olympic Games must become very obvious very quickly. I believe that time has come and we owe it to our athletes to give them respite where we can.”
After the IOC issued a statement ruling out cancellation of the Games in favour of “alternative scenario planning … including postponement” for the Tokyo Games and would come to a decision by the third week in April, Lord Coe, urging a much faster response, identified three areas of most concern: fairness of competition, risk of injury, and the emotional well-being of competitors.
The imbalance of some athletes being better able to train on than others, said Lord Coe, meant that:
“… we can no longer expect a fair and level playing field in our sport given the number of athletes who are struggling to train in various countries due to measures put in place to reduce the spread of coronavirus.”
In a series of tweets, he gave warning to the fit to take the virus seriously, severe fatigue and a lasting cough still dogging him two weeks after he first showed symptoms, the expectation of a long recovery period ahead.
Van Der Burgh’s revelation came on day when Canada said that it would not send a team to Tokyo 2020 in July and Australia told its athletes to “prepare for Tokyo2021”.
Almost 13,000 people worldwide have been killed by Covid-19, according to the latest WHO figures, with cases in 187 countries, areas or territories, the vast bulk of Olympic nations.
Meanwhile, the swimming world awaits word from a silent FINA, Adam Peaty among those asking the international federation to “do the right thing”:
Tokyo 2020 Organisers Admit Postponement Now On The Table
Tokyo 2020’s Organizing Committee today described postponement as a “realistic option”.
At a press conference in the Japanese capital, Committee President Yoshiro Mori conceded:
“Postponement isn’t our first course of action but we cannot not consider it as a realistic option either.”