Surrey: World Athletics President Sebastian Coe has told a news agency that 'we can't keep postponing the Tokyo Olympics' if the coronavirus persists.
Staging the Games before an effective vaccine has been developed will be difficult, said the head of the Japan Medical Association on Tuesday.
The 2020 Olympics have been postponed until next year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
And Coe hinted he agreed with Yoshiro Mori, head of the local organising committee, who said the Games would be scrapped if 2021 proved impossible.
Coe is working to get athletes back in competition as quickly as possible once safe to do so this year but admitted he did not know what future months would look like.
Coe also argued athletes should continue to operate as normal with regard to doping testing.
"Clearly, if you are trying to get competition back onto the books, you need to do it respectfully and not to flout any of the regulations that are out there. I'm really genuinely hoping that the pandemic will have been curtailed. I don't know enough to even speculate about vaccines. I'm told it's not so much about creating a vaccine, not all viruses respond to vaccines anyway, but it's also about rolling it out and get it widespread enough. I think that's the thing, forget the Olympic Games at the moment, I'm sure that's what most medical teams inside governments are trying to grapple with at the moment."
"I hope we're not at that point and II would have to say from a personal perspective, and I'm sure most people would agree with me, it is far better to have major events with crowds enjoying sport, celebrating unbelievable human endeavours."
"I think what we've done which is to create a structure that, given the right advice and given the right permission to do what we want which is to get the athletes back, is about as far ahead as we should be looking right now. I think it's pretty clear though that you couldn't go on forever postponing an Olympic Games. There comes a point where you do have to start posing questions. I hope we're a little way off that yet."
"I think the ambition is to get the athletes back into competition as soon as we possibly can but only when it is safe to do so. If it's not safe you can't put them at risk. You shouldn't actually be putting those communities that you want to be enjoying the sport at risk as well. So at the moment it's really trying to create some structures that with best endeavours we're able to fulfill but I don't think any of us really know what the next few months is really going to look like. The one advantage we have actually is at this stage being an individual sport. We can organise things where you don't actually need 22 people on a pitch."
"Look, let me be open here, of course we have had some challenges around our anti-doping processes. If you look at the Athletics Integrity Unit, which is doing sterling work, it's almost unique in sport. Before lockdown, before the pandemic they had programmes and missions in over 100 countries and they are at the top of their game. And the big, well-structured anti-doping agencies like USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency), those organisations are also on their game. Athletes would be mistaken if they're sitting there thinking that they're in a test free zone, they're not. There are still some pretty good ways of monitoring what the athletes are doing. My message is very clear: assume you are in normal conditions here. You still need to fill your whereabouts forms in. I know it's probably a slightly simpler process than it was a few weeks ago. Everybody pretty much knows where they are most of the day."
"You know to have all that in one summer, yes it's a headache. If anyone had said to us that we would have a summer with a World Championships, a Commonwealth Games and a European Championships, all in the same year you'd have clutched for the Panadol (Paracetamol). Then to be confronted with the fact you've got to do it in a window of six and a half, seven weeks, then you really do understand the complexity of it. But, set that aside 22 will be an extraordinary feast of athletics."
