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(CNN) -
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe says he is confident that the Tokyo Olympics can be held safely, despite growing calls for cancellation. of the games.
Japan is currently battling a fourth wave of coronavirus infections and Tokyo, along with several other prefectures, remains in a state of emergency until the end of May.
In that context, a petition calling for the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics was presented to the organizers after obtaining hundreds of thousands of signatures, and the CEO of Japan's leading e-commerce company Rakuten has qualified the plans to organize the Games as a "suicide mission."
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But Coe remains confident that the Olympics, already postponed a year amid the pandemic, will be able to start on July 23 as scheduled.
Should we have the Games?
Yes we should.
Can we keep them safe and secure?
I think we can, ”Coe, a four-time Olympic medalist and president of World Athletics since 2015, told CNN Sport.
I'm not arrogant about that.
But I do believe that there are systems that have now been tried and tested.
We know a lot more about these systems than we did a year ago.
The organizers have outlined strict plans in the hope that the Games can be staged safely, including rigorous testing and monitoring measures and restricted movements for athletes.
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“For athletes, it will be a sterile experience.
I think we have to accept that.
Your day will almost certainly be from town to town, place to town, and perhaps on training tracks in between.
“There will be no sightseeing, there will be no karaoke bars.
I mean, serious athletes wouldn't go for that anyway, but it's going to be tough. "
Coe, who was chairman of the London 2012 organizing committee, said he "can't really speculate" on a scenario where the Games would be canceled, a decision that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has said is up to the International Olympic Committee.
He also highlighted the importance of hosting the Olympics for the thousands of athletes who qualify to compete in Tokyo.
"There's a pretty sobering statistic: 70% of the competitors chasing an Olympic spot will only get one shot at this," Coe said.
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«Cancel an Olympic Games when football, tennis, rugby and other sports are already running, and some even with crowds, where cities are coming out of the lockdown and moving towards normality, I can see there is not a good reason why you don't want to go out of your way to make sure you're not writing off a generation of athletes who have spent more than half of their youth searching for this unique moment that is real life for themselves and their families and their friends and the systems that have been put in place to support them. '
Since infection rates and vaccine releases vary around the world, there are fears that some countries may not be in a position to send athletes to Tokyo in July.
The organizers have said that the vaccines are part of a "toolbox" of countermeasures for the Games to be held safely, but also said they will not be mandatory for athletes to compete.
“I think most of the world will be at the Games, and I really hope they can use themselves if they have vaccines in their communities.
Right now, National Olympic Committees around the world are in dialogue with their own governments in different ways.
I have not been one of those who has really favored the imposition of a mandate, that athletes must be vaccinated to be there, but I encourage them if they are available to take advantage of them.
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