The President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, said that the postponement will not be a year. (Image via The Straits Times)

Bach: Olympics 'may' begin before Summer 2021

On Wednesday, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, said that the Japan Olympics could go ahead before Summer 2021. However, the rescheduled Olympics is facing “thousands” of logistical and financial hindrances.

On Tuesday, IOC and Japan agreed to make the first-of-its-kind Olympics postponement, the first since 124-year history due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak.

While most people assumed that the Japan Olympics would be held in the same period (July – August) next year, Bach said that earlier dates in 2021 were possible. Through a conference call, Bach said that the IOC sought to hold the Olympics at the latest in Summer 2021, not restricted just to the summer months.

The 2020 Summer Olympics was the last major sports event of 2020 to be canceled due to COVID-19, a decision that made everyone wonder why Japan and IOC took such a long time to decide on what was inevitable.

Many criticized IOC, Bach, and Japan for not reacting sooner to the COVID-19.

While the athletes felt blue by the decision, they were also relieved. The COVID-19 had affected the qualifying events, the travel, and how they train.

However, for the host country, Japan is hit the hardest. The $12 billion investment to stage the Olympics was largely in vain and the country is now having a headache to reorganize logistics, funding, and sponsorship for the rescheduled event.

Bach could not guarantee that Japan would have everything under their list now. For example, the Athletes Village in Japan was supposedly set to be sold after the game. Now, nobody knows what will happen to the building.

The IOC is due to start talks with other global sporting bodies from Thursday as the postponement resulted in a domino effect for many other sports competitions.

Source: https://bit.ly/2xsNXG4