The president of the International Olympic Committee Bach has repeatedly stressed that there are still more than four months before the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games. It is too early to make a final decision on whether the Tokyo Olympic Games will be held as scheduled.
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 19 (reporter Ji Ye, Wang Meng, Prince Jiang) under the shadow of the new Crown pneumonia epidemic, the Tokyo Olympic Games torch handover ceremony was held in Athens, Greece on the 19th, with only more than ten guests attending, the performance was also canceled. However, in contrast to this indifference, the International Olympic Committee will communicate intensively with stakeholders by phone this week to respond to the concerns of all parties and actively respond to challenges.
The two highest purposes
affected by the epidemic, many qualifying matches of Tokyo Olympic Games were forced to be postponed or canceled, and many Test matches were also canceled or held behind closed doors. The torch relay in Greece was stopped the next day, the torch relay plan in Japan has been greatly scaled down, and the vice chairman of the Japanese Olympic Committee has also been diagnosed with covid-19……
This week, the International Olympic Committee successively communicated with the International Federation of individual sports, representatives of athletes, national (regional) Olympic committees, etc. For holding the Tokyo Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee has established the highest purpose: first, to protect everyone’s health and fully support the epidemic prevention and control work; Second, to ensure that the interests of athletes and the interests of the Olympic movement are not damaged.
On the 19th, in the telephone meeting with the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic committees of Asian countries (regions) expressed their support for the IOC communique and relevant principles one by one. Previously, the stakeholders of the Olympic movement in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Oceania also expressed their support for the International Olympic Committee.
It is too early to decide
on the 18th, the International Olympic Committee held a telephone meeting with 220 representatives of athletes. The president of the International Olympic Committee Bach has repeatedly stressed that there are still more than four months before the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games. It is too early to make a final decision on whether the Tokyo Olympic Games will be held as scheduled.
Sebastian Ko, the chairman of IAAF, also thinks it is too early to decide. However, when asked whether the Tokyo Olympics could be postponed to September this year or October, he said frankly that it was possible, “everything is possible, but now it is not the time to make a decision”. He also pointed out that if the Olympic games were postponed to 2021, there would be problems. “on the surface, this seems to be an easy proposition, but in fact, each individual Federation will hold a world championship in the non-Olympic year”. Track and field and swimming will be held in 2021.
Act in a responsible way
In the Q & A session, the representatives of athletes raised more than 40 questions, which involved the impact of the preparations under the epidemic. It was not clear how to advance to the Olympics after the qualifier was canceled, worry about getting infected with viruses during the preparation process.
Against the background that global sports events have been canceled or postponed, the IOC has been encouraging Olympic athletes to continue preparing for the war. But this also triggered some different views. Some active athletes complained that although they are looking forward to the Olympic Games, they still hope that the Tokyo Olympic Games will have plan B, so that they can adjust the training plan as soon as possible to reduce unnecessary risks.
The International Olympic Committee frankly said that the current situation is a special situation and special solutions are needed. The IOC is committed to finding solutions that have minimal negative impact on athletes while protecting the integrity of the competition and the health of athletes. In this case, no solution is ideal. The International Olympic Committee also said that it would act in a responsible way for the interests of athletes and strive to be practical in the process of analysis and evaluation.
In addition, representatives of athletes mentioned that their preparation for Olympic games were affected by the epidemic and lacked support and corresponding guarantees. The International Olympic Committee said it would urge the national (regional) Olympic committees to assist and support athletes as much as possible to prepare for the war.
The President of the Spanish Olympic Committee Alejandro Blanco expressed the same concern in the video meeting with Bach. He said that under the current situation, the problem faced by Spanish athletes is not only that they cannot train in the next two weeks, but that the situation of not training may be prolonged. He worries that many athletes, like Spanish athletes, will not be able to reach their best state in the Tokyo Olympics.
However, after talking with Bach, Blanco’s doubts seemed to be answered. He said: “We have confidence in the IOC and Bach, because I firmly believe that the decision he made is the best for everyone.”
Japanese surfer Kanoa · fifty-ten Lan is expected to win the Olympic gold medal in the new project of surfing, and his views are also representative. “It is really a little difficult to prepare for things that may be canceled and to mobilize yourself. At this moment, I am a little uncertain. There is no doubt that every athlete wants to participate in the Olympic games in his heart, but (whether it will be held as scheduled) is not something I can decide, so I will not focus on it. No matter what happens, there is a reason. I am trying to keep a positive attitude.”
The Olympic family faces together
although there are criticism voices, the Olympic family chooses to unite and face together at this time.
The International Table Tennis Federation actively seeks alternatives for the canceled Olympic qualifier, including: adding various intercontinental Olympic qualifiers to the world singles Olympic qualifier or the events before the Olympics, or determine the qualification for promotion according to the world ranking at that time. The International Canoe Federation and the International Weightlifting Federation are also communicating with the International Olympic Committee recently. Each international sports federation will issue a revised version of the promotion rules for all 33 projects in the Tokyo Olympic Games in early April.
The Australian Olympic Committee said on the 19th that it will continue to plan and prepare for participating in the Tokyo Olympic Games, and will put the health and safety of athletes and officials in the first place. Ian Chesterman, head of the Australian Olympic delegation, said that the spread of the epidemic has brought many challenges to athletes, especially how to qualify for the Olympic Games when the qualifier is postponed or canceled and there are travel restrictions; how to ensure participation in the Olympic Games without being infected by the virus.
The Australian Olympic Committee has also adopted a series of epidemic prevention and control measures since last week, including canceling the training plan to Tokyo 3 months ago, allowing employees to work from home, holding annual shareholders’ meetings online, etc. The Australian Olympic Committee is currently considering extending the pre-competition training camp, and then charter flights to bring athletes to Tokyo for the competition.
Affected by the epidemic, some stimulant testing laboratories were forced to close. Some athletes are worried that some people take the opportunity to use stimulants. In this regard, the International Olympic Committee made it clear that it would Plus-sized sampling efforts to ensure a clean competition environment. The World Anti-Doping Agency also said that it would go all out to support the Tokyo Olympics.
On the 20th, the special plane carrying the Olympic flame will come to Japan. When many conditions are directed against the scheduled opening, bringing the Olympic flame to Japan is a “small victory” for the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, which have always insisted on preparing for the Olympic Games as planned “. The burning Olympic flame will always explain to people the theme of this torch relay-“HopeLightsOurWay” (hoping to illuminate the road ahead). This was originally more to cheer for the reconstruction of the nuclear leakage disaster area of Japan’s “March 11” earthquake and tsunami, but unexpectedly matched the current wishes of the world.