International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach promised to deliver a “safe, secure” Tokyo Olympics this year as he prepared to be re-elected for a second term yesterday.
As he opened the IOC Session, Bach said it was no longer a question of whether the Olympics, which were postponed last year as the coronavirus pandemic spread around the globe, would take place but in what conditions they will be held.
“Tokyo remains the best prepared Olympic city ever and at this moment, we have no reason to doubt that the Opening Ceremony will take place on July 23,” Bach said.
“The question is not whether, the question is how these Olympic Games will take place.
“The IOC is working at full speed together with our Japanese partners and friends to make the postponed Olympic Games a safe manifestation of peace, solidarity and resilience of humankind in overcoming the pandemic.”
Bach said his aim was to create “a safe, secure and fair environment for all the athletes”.
The local Japanese organisers are due to announce by the end of the month whether foreign spectators will be allowed to attend the Games, although it is widely reported that they will be barred due to Covid-19 concerns.
Bach, a 67-year-old German lawyer who won a gold medal in fencing at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, is unopposed in the election.
The Tokyo Olympics is the most pressing agenda item at the start of his new four-year term, after an opening eight years that saw him deal with the problem-laden 2014 Sochi and 2016 Rio Games, state-sponsored Russian doping and the deadly wave of coronavirus.
The term of office of the IOC president has been halved from eight years to four since Bach took office in 2013.
Meanwhile, the families of athletes competing at the Tokyo Olympics could be barred from entering Japan to watch them, the Games president has suggested in an interview with local media.
The comments came as reports said Japan’s government has decided to exclude overseas fans from the coronavirus-delayed Games to reduce the risk of outbreaks.
The decision on foreign fans is expected to be announced when Games organisers and officials from the Japanese and Tokyo governments meet the heads of the International Olympic and Paralympic Committees, likely next week.
And Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto appeared to pour cold water on the prospect of making athletes’ families exempt from the ban, telling reporters it would be “difficult”.
“This is a chance they may only get once in their lives, so on an emotional level I want families to be able to watch,” Hashimoto was quoted as saying by the Mainichi Shimbun daily late Tuesday.
“But we have to think about Japan’s medical system, so with a heavy heart I have to say it’s difficult.”
On Tuesday, Kyodo news agency said the Japanese government had concluded it was “not possible” to allow overseas fans due to “concerns among the Japanese public over the coronavirus and the fact that more contagious variants have been detected in many countries”.
The Asahi Shimbun daily said the IOC had asked Japan to make exceptions for overseas guests linked to sponsors, and that the government was considering the request.
A poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun published this week found that more than 75 percent of Japanese opposed overseas fans attending the Games.
Around 900,000 tickets have reportedly been sold outside Japan.
Related Story