TOKYO (AFP) – The collapse of sports events worldwide over the rapidly spreading new coronavirus heaped pressure on the Tokyo Olympics on Friday as US President Donald Trump suggested delaying the Games by a year.
Formula One’s Australian Grand Prix and The Players Championship, one of golf’s most prestigious events, were the latest to fall in a period when the virus has laid waste to the sporting calendar.
Football’s Premier League, with a worldwide audience of billions, is also in question after Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea midfielder were confirmed to have the disease.
The PGA Tour golf season, the men’s tennis tour, NBA basketball, Major League Baseball and a host of top-flight football leagues have all been put on hold or forced behind closed doors.
The impact of COVID-19, which has killed nearly 5,000 people according to an AFP tally, is accelerating just over four months from the Tokyo Olympics’ start on July 24.
Tokyo Olympics organizers, Japan’s government and the International Olympic Committee have been adamant the Games will go ahead as planned despite the global panic.
But Trump became the first foreign leader to break ranks and raise the prospect of delaying the Olympics until 2021.
“Maybe they postpone it for a year,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, 19 weeks before the opening ceremony in Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium.
“You know, I like that better than I like having empty stadiums all over the place. I think if you cancel it, make it a year later, that’s a better alternative than doing it with no crowd,” he said.
Trump’s comments came just hours after actresses dressed as ancient Greek priestesses held the ceremonial flame-lighting at a ruined temple in the original Olympia, Greece.
LOTS OF OPTIONS
Trump later discussed the Olympics with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by telephone, before tweeting there were “Lots of options!”
But Tokyo’s governor Yuriko Koike was unmoved, telling reporters on Friday: “For Tokyo, there is no option of cancellation at all.”
Japan’s Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto said: “Neither the IOC nor the organising committee is thinking about delaying or cancelling the Games at all.”
Asked about the possibility of scaling back the number of spectators, Hashimoto said: ”We are not thinking about that at all.”
IOC WILLING TO
FOLLOW WHO
In Berlin, the IOC will follow the World Health Organization’s recommendation on whether to cancel or postpone this year’s Tokyo Olympics over the coronavirus pandemic, IOC chief Thomas Bach said Thursday.
In an interview with German television ARD, Bach said his organization has been in regular contact with WHO experts since mid-February over the issue.
“We will follow the advice of the WHO,” he said, adding that the IOC was now still working towards preparing for a “successful” Games.
With cancellations of Olympic qualifiers piling up as countries unroll drastic measures to halt the contagion, Bach acknowledged that there are ”serious problems with qualification competitions”.
