Canadian IOC members Dick Pound (former WADA President) and Hayley Wickenheiser (four-time Olympic ice hockey champion between 2002 and 2014, IOC member since 2014 who had on Twitter launched: “This crisis is greater than the Olympics. We don't know what will happen in the next 24 hours, let alone three months from now. Should the Olympics be canceled? No one knows at this point and that is MY view. But to say with certainty that they will move forward is an injustice for the athletes who train and the general population in general. ”) Had been, in recent weeks, the most committed to the postponement of the Olympic Games in Tokyo ( scheduled from July 24 to August 15). In the wake of its spokespersons, Canada via a joint press release from the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) indicated that it had “made the difficult decision not to send teams” and demanded their postponement due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Canada is the first country to make the decision not to send athletes to Tokyo should the Games take place there as scheduled this summer. In the aftermath, officials of the Australian Olympic Committee deemed Monday "clear" that the Tokyo Olympics could not take place this summer as planned, and urged their athletes to prepare for 2021.
An untenable situation for the IOC
Sunday, if the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had reminded that the outright cancellation of the Tokyo Games "is not on the agenda", it for the first time raised the idea of a postponement . A long taboo word. But he still gave himself four weeks to decide. Thomas Bach, the IOC President, recalling after the executive committee of the umbrella body the cumbersome implementation of the cogs involved in such a decision: "A certain number of sites essential for the holding of the Games may no longer be available. The issue of the millions of nights already booked in hotels is extremely difficult to manage, and the international sports calendar in at least 33 Olympic sports should be adapted. And these are just a few of the many, many challenges we face. ”
Postponement is no longer a fantasy, but a reality
Following this communication and faced with an increasingly pressing, increasingly worried sports movement, for the health of athletes confined and disturbed in their preparation, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the Japanese Parliament: "The can still count on Japan to host the Games this summer "but" if it became difficult, taking athletes into account as a priority ", the decision to postpone" could become inevitable "if the coronavirus pandemic prevented their organization in safe conditions. AFP adds that Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike also stood behind the words of Abe and the IOC on Monday, accepting that a postponement will be part of the scenarios that will be discussed over the next four weeks by all partners involved.
In the space of 24 hours, the Tokyo Olympics have taken a big step towards postponement. The idea is no longer a fantasy but a reality. He now remains at the IOC and, as Thomas Bach takes care to enumerate them, to the multiple actors "Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and the Japanese authorities, as well as all the International Federations (IF) and all the National Olympic Committees ( NOCs), broadcasters with rights, TOP sponsors, partners, suppliers and other providers of the Games ”to find common ground to fix a new date and outline the idea of a new playground. A postponement which will have serious financial consequences. All the stakes of the next four weeks, 122 days from the date scheduled for the Tokyo Olympics (July 24-August 9) and an Olympic world waiting. An unprecedented situation, only two world wars prevented the Olympic Games (1916, 1940 and 1944).
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