Organizers postponed the Olympic Games for a year in March last year due to the global pandemic. Nearly a year later, the outlook remains bleak.
Plans for the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games become increasingly uncertain as the world continues to battle the COVID-19 global pandemic.
As coronavirus infections increased across Japan and in some major countries in Europe and America, officials in Tokyo and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) began to admit that hosting an Olympics Safety Assembly may not be possible, endangering dreams that the Olympics could serve the global celebration of the end of the pandemic.
Instead, I.O.C. may be forced to cancel the Olympics for the first time since World War II.
That would be a huge financial blow for both the Olympic organization and Japan, which spent more than $ 12 billion building stadiums and improving its infrastructure in preparation for the Olympics, and billions of dollars more to delay the event a year.
Organizers in Tokyo and at the I.O.C. agreed to postpone the Olympics for one year in March of 2020.
The bi-annual Games, the largest in the world, is expected to take place in July and August of last year. The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics is now scheduled for July 23.
Thomas Bach, president of I.O.C., has said that postponing the Olympics again is not an option, and if the event cannot take place this summer, it won’t happen.
Toshiro Muto, executive director of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, reaffirmed that view this week. I.O.C. awarded the 2024 Summer Olympics to Paris and the 2028 Summer Olympics to Los Angeles.
Hope for the Olympics has increased as several major sporting events are held around the world without major problems, albeit on a much smaller scale and with little or no fans attending.
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