Lausanne: The International Olympic Committee is considering a postponement of Tokyo 2020 Games, and has given itself a deadline of four weeks to make a decision.
The IOC's executive board met on Sunday amid mounting pressure from athletes and national Olympic committees for the Games to be delayed because of the coronavirus crisis.
"Together with all the stakeholders, we have started detailed discussions today to complete our assessment of the rapid development of the worldwide health situation and its impact on the Olympic Games, including a scenario of postponement. We are working very hard, and we are confident that we will have finalized these discussions within the next four weeks," IOC president Thomas Bach said in a letter to the global athletes community, as quoted by a leading internatinal news agency.
According to the IOC president, the improving situation with COVID-19 in Japan strengthens confidence that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could be held in time.
"On the one hand, there are significant improvements in Japan where the people are warmly welcoming the Olympic flame. This could strengthen our confidence in our Japanese hosts that we could, with certain safety restrictions, organize Olympic Games in the country whilst respecting our principle of safeguarding the health of everyone involved," he stated.
Bach also said that a cancellation of the Olympics was not on the agenda of the Committee, but given the circumstances related to COVID-19, a new date for the competitions could not be determined.
The Tokyo Olympic Games are slated to be held from July 24 to August 9. However, many athletes have raised concerns over the quadrennial event taking place in the face of the spread of the deadly virus.
