He wanted to spread a reassuring message.
Faced with concerns about the holding of the Tokyo Olympics, the boss of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, demanded on Wednesday, after a meeting of the executive board of the body, "patience ", After a year of postponement, and promised" safe "Games even in the midst of a pandemic.
As on many occasions in recent months, he brushed aside fears of the cancellation of the largest peaceful rally in the world, assuring that it would be held from July 23 to August 8 in Japan.
"From a human point of view", conceded Bach, it is "very difficult to imagine the Olympics" when one "undergoes a confinement and wonders when one will be able to return to the restaurant or to see again his family and his friends".
But given the “bubbles” from which the sports world now protects its competitions, it is “not irresponsible” to maintain this gigantic gathering, he argued.
“Our task is to organize the Games, not to cancel the Games… If we thought that the Games cannot be sure, we would not organize them, insisted the IOC President.
We are fully focused on preparing for the Olympics, as are the Japanese authorities and the organizing committee.
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The former foil player, Olympic team champion at the 1976 Montreal Olympics also excluded any movement of the Olympics to another place, "impossible in such a short time", response to the surprising proposal that came Monday from the State of Florida, however just as struck as Japan by the Covid-19.
The first version of the IOC "playbook" soon available
The Tokyo Olympics were normally scheduled for the summer of 2020 but have been postponed for a year due to the health situation linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, a first in history in peacetime.
While the pandemic is still present and new variants of the virus have emerged in recent months, various options have recently been raised in the media, ranging from outright cancellation of the appointment to Games without audience.
Regarding the vaccination of athletes, another delicate subject at a time when priority people are still very far from having all been vaccinated in the world, Mr. Bach recalled that the IOC "was not in favor of athletes cutting the line. 'waiting'.
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The IOC president finally indicated that the body would soon make public the first version of its "playbook", a manual aimed at describing "all the possible measures to be applied in July and August in Tokyo".
This manual covers many essential issues such as travel, potential quarantines, transportation, life in the Olympic Village, and social distancing.
