The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, reasserted that the 2020 Summer Olympics will begin as scheduled. (Image via The Straits Times)

Thomas Bach: Cancelation is impossible

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Sports & Culture
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Mar 22, 2020
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The President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, rebuked the calls from the athletes and sports officials around the globe to postpone the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Japan. The call for cancelation, coming majorly from the U.S Olympic committees and major sports federations, was triggered due to the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak.

Major sports federations called for the IOC to cancel or postpone the Olympics for a year due to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak and the doubt that the athletes would be able to compete on their best competitive levels. Currently, about 234,000 people had been infected by the COVID-19 worldwide.

Let alone postponement, Bach said that it will be difficult to cancel the Summer Olympics. Speaking to a German news agency, Bach said canceling or postponing the Olympics games is different from canceling football games.

Bach had been repeating that the current goal of the IOC is to hold the 2020 Summer Olympics safely and “on schedule”. However, then Bach started saying that any decision requires reliable and clear information. In an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, Bach admitted that he also sought different scenarios for the Tokyo Games due to the COVID-19.

The 2020 Summer Olympics will be held from 24 July to 9 August, while the Paralympics will be held from 25 August to 6 September. All along, the Japanese government, IOC, and the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee insist that they would hold the Olympics still.

Source: https://bit.ly/3bgiZPP

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