IOC chief admits fans may be barred from Tokyo Olympics

International Olympic Committee, IOC president, Thomas Bach, has made a suggestion that may see fans watching the Tokyo Games from their respective homes.

He said the organisers were committed to holding a “successful and safe” Tokyo Games, dismissing cancellation talk as “speculation” – but admitted for the first time that fans may not be allowed.

After rising debate over the viability of the 2020 Games, already postponed for a year to July 23, Bach called for patience and said the International Olympic Committee was fully focused on the challenge of staging the event during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re not losing time or energy on speculation about whether the Games are taking place,” the IOC president told media in a video conference.

“We’re working on how the Games will take place.

“Our task is to organise Olympic Games, not to cancel Olympic Games… and that is why we will not add fuel to this speculation.”

read also:IOC boss Bash optimistic Tokyo Olympics will hold

Bach said the complexity of the Games had multiplied in the pandemic and announced a “playbook” of measures, including social distancing and potential quarantines, intended to host them safely.

“We are fully concentrated on and committed to the successful and safe delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020,” he said.

“We just have to ask for patience and understanding, is the main message… I think it is too early to decide anything else,” he added.

But Bach, who in November said he was “very, very confident” of holding the Olympics in front of fans, conceded that they could now take place behind closed doors.

“This I cannot tell you,” he said, when asked if fans would be able to attend. “Our priority is to ensure safe Olympic Games and we will do whatever is needed to organise safe Olympic Games.”

Doubts have soared about the Games, due to start in less than six months, as the pandemic continues to paralyse many countries and with large parts of Japan, including Tokyo, under a state of emergency.

On Thursday, Tokyo’s first Olympic test event this year, an artistic swimming competition scheduled for March, was postponed for two months because of travel restrictions.

“There is no blueprint, we’re learning every day,” Bach said.

He said he understood how people living under lockdown and perhaps unable to even visit a restaurant because of Covid-19 restrictions found it hard to envisage the Games going ahead.

“The responsibility of the (Japanese) government and the IOC is to look beyond this situation,” Bach added.

“We are able and in a position to offer relevant counter-measures,” he said. “If we would think it wasn’t responsible, or the Games could not be safe, we would not go for it.”

However, he stressed that athletes should not be given priority for receiving coronavirus vaccinations.

“We always have made it clear that we are not in favour of athletes jumping the queue,” Bach said.

Bach said the “playbook” was “a huge undertaking under daily review” and covered essential issues such as immigration, transport and living in the Olympic Village.