SALT LAKE CITY International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach left no doubt Wednesday that the upcoming Summer Games in Tokyo will go on as scheduled despite new speculation that the Japanese government wants to cancel the event due to COVID-19. We are not speculating on whether the Games are taking place. We are working on how the Games are taking place, Bach told reporters during a virtual news conference following an IOC Executive Committee meeting, promising that Olympic leaders are fully concentrated on, and fully committed to holding a safe Olympics.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who led the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, weighed in via a tweet linking to a Wall Street Journal story that quoted a Japanese Olympic organizer urging U.S. President Joe Biden to back the Tokyo Games going ahead.
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TOKYO – There is “no Plan B” for the Tokyo Games, says International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who reaffirmed his commitment to holding the showpiece event this year in an interview with Kyodo News on Thursday.
After the Games were postponed last year because of the global novel coronavirus pandemic, Saturday marks six months until the rearranged Olympics are due to start on July 23.
Despite dwindling public support and a surge in coronavirus cases across the world, organisers are adamant the Games will go ahead.
“We have at this moment, no reason whatsoever to believe that the Olympic Games in Tokyo will not open on the 23rd of July in the Olympic stadium in Tokyo,” Bach told Kyodo News.