(ATR) The ruling IOC Executive Board meets Tuesday to prepare for crisis talks about what to do about the Tokyo Olympics as the world shuts down to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus.
"The IOC Executive Board will meet via conference call tomorrow to prepare the information exchange with athletes’ representatives, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs) in a series of calls on Tuesday and Wednesday," says a statement from an IOC spokesman.
The phone calls with the key participants in the Olympic Games could be a prelude to action by the IOC to change plans to hold the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo beginning July 24.
While the IOC has stated that no changes to the Tokyo schedule are planned, whether postponement or cancellation, that was before the dramatic shutdown of daily life around the world now occurring. Months could elapse before normalcy is restored.
Since the IOC announced its intent to press forward with Tokyo, other major sports bodies have elected to play it safe. The Masters and the NCAA Final Four, two of the biggest sports events on the calendar after the Olympics will not take place as planned. Major League Baseball spring training is ended and maybe a whole season will be lost. The NBA and NHL have suspended play as have the world’s professional golfers.
A number of Olympic sports on the program in Tokyo have put a halt to the final stages of qualifying for some team and individual events.
The IOC has had to abandon the gleaming new headquarters in Lausanne opened just nine months ago, staff now working from home beginning this week as a precaution against corona. IOC President Thomas Bach, a German national, remains in Lausanne where he will lead the IOC through the crisis, ATR is told.
The consultations ahead for Bach and the IOC this week must be handled by teleconference given the staggering number of stakeholders involved. For the Tokyo Olympics there are 33 international federations and 206 NOCs to contact.
Unmentioned are sponsors and broadcasters, who are likely being consulted as well as the pandemic takes hold. Those two groups face significant financial risks should the Tokyo Olympics be cancelled or postponed.
If the IOC decides on a change of course for Tokyo after its stakeholder consultations, the move could be announced before the ceremonial transfer of the Olympic flame to Tokyo 2020 set for March 19 in Athens, Greece.
The Greek leg of the torch relay was cancelled last week, the day after the flame was lit in Olympia after large crowds gathered to see the relay. That left only the transfer to Japan as the final event before sending the flame off to Japan for a nearly four month journey with 10,000 torchbearers.
Postponing – or cancelling – the Tokyo Olympics will be much easier to do before the Olympic flame leaves the custody of Greece.
Coronavirus News on Around the Rings
Reported by Ed Hula.
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