Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 13 (reporter Ji Ye, Prince Jiang) under the shadow of the new Crown pneumonia epidemic, the Greek Olympic Committee announced on the 13th that due to the excessive onlookers, cancel the 2020 Tokyo Olympic torch relay in Greece. The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee later issued a statement saying that it would cooperate closely with all parties to ensure that the torch relay in Japan was carried out safely on March 26 as scheduled.
The Torch of the Tokyo Olympic Games was successfully collected in Greece on the 12th, and the torch began to pass in Greece. But only one day later, the Greek Olympic Committee issued a statement saying that after consulting with the country’s health department and the International Olympic Committee, because a large number of people ignored the warning of the prevention of the new coronavirus epidemic and watched the torch relay, it was decided to cancel the Tokyo Olympic torch relay in Greece; The Olympic torch will also be transferred to the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee on the 19th as planned, but there will be no audience at the handover ceremony.
The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee immediately said in a statement: “The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee has learned that the torch relay in Greece has been canceled, and we have also learned that the Greek Olympic Committee agreed to continue to hold the handover ceremony on March 19 as planned, although there will be no audience at that time. The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee will cooperate closely with relevant institutions such as the International Olympic Committee and the Greek Olympic Committee.”
“Tokyo Olympic organizing committee will bring the Olympic flame back to Japan, follow the epidemic prevention measures formulated by the Japanese government, and work closely with all Japanese municipal governments and relevant agencies to ensure (within Japan) the Olympic torch relay began safely on March 26. The International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee also reiterated today that the two sides will continue to work closely with relevant agencies to jointly organize a safe Tokyo Olympic Games, which opened on July 24, 202020.”
Previously, according to the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, on March 26, the Olympic organizing committee will hold a grand opening ceremony of the torch relay at the national training center in Fukushima, and began the torch relay in 47 prefectures and counties across Japan. There are about 10000 torchbearers participating in the torch relay of the Tokyo Olympic Games. There are 88 torchbearers participating every day, and each person runs about 200 meters.
However, under the background of the new coronavirus epidemic entering the global “pandemic”, it is still unknown whether the torch relay in Japan can be carried out on such a scale.
When the outside world kept speculating whether the Tokyo Olympic Games could be held as scheduled, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a telephone conversation with US President Trump on the 13th that the Tokyo Olympic Games would be held as scheduled this summer.