Olympics cannot go ahead, says UK Athletics chairman

 

FILE PHOTO: Football - Soccerex African Forum 2012 - Durban, South Africa - 23/10/12 Nic Coward - General Secretary of the Premier League during the opening ceremony Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Abhiram Indrarajan/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The Tokyo Olympics should be called off to spare athletes the "stress" of trying to train in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, UK Athletics chairman Nic Coward said on Friday.

 

In the week the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Tokyo 2020 organisers insisted the Games will proceed as planned, Coward became the highest-profile UK sports administrator to say the Olympics could not go ahead.

 

Four months before the event is due to start, global sport has been brought to a standstill by the virus which has infected more than 250,000 people worldwide and killed more than 10,500 -- including 184 in Britain as of Friday.

 

Most Olympic athletes in Britain have found training facilities closed and are being advised to avoid going out.

 

When asked whether it was now time to call off the Games in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Coward said: "Yeah, it seems to be absolutely what has to happen.

 

"And look, it shouldn't surprise anyone that these very personal (athlete) experiences take time to come through to the IOC level. I can understand that.

 

"But as governments take action to protect their people -- which includes closing down facilities on which athletes and para-athletes rely -- and as that message is coming through more clearly now... I mean, we're only a week in this country."

 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that he believed that the virus could be beaten in 12 weeks, but Coward said that time scale would make it impossible for team members to prepare for the Olympics which start in July.

 

"I would never be so grand as to demand x, y or z. All I would say from a UK perspective, knowing what we know now, even since the Prime Minister's announcement on Tuesday evening (about avoiding mass gatherings and social contact), we thought the facilities would be able to remain open," he said.

 

"Now they can't. They are closing. And that is creating stress. From my perspective, right now, I think that will have to lead to the conclusion that the Games must be (postponed); that the decision has to be made that the Olympic and Paralympic Games can't take place as currently scheduled."

 

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Christian Radnedge)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-03-21

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Yep, he is so right! Now we are just waiting for the Japanese to get their head around the issue and understand the severity. Will probably take a while.

I'm sure China wants the Games to continue as planned.  Obviously, if all the Western country athletes have trouble training, due to the chinese virus, and the chinese athletes can hide away and train normally, then the big medal winner will be china.

Seems so obvious to me, and i'll bet you that china is working hard behind the scenes (by offering bags of cash to the IOC leaders) to enforce the chinese  mandate of 'the Games must go on'.

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1 hour ago, chingmai331 said:

I'm sure China wants the Games to continue as planned.  Obviously, if all the Western country athletes have trouble training, due to the chinese virus, and the chinese athletes can hide away and train normally, then the big medal winner will be china.

Seems so obvious to me, and i'll bet you that china is working hard behind the scenes (by offering bags of cash to the IOC leaders) to enforce the chinese  mandate of 'the Games must go on'.

 

First you are sure. Then you say you bet. Don´t you know that there are no sure bets?

By the end of this month it will have been postponed.

The atheletes still wanting to go (maybe 4 months late)  should still stay in training as best they can

Life continues without sports, movie stars and the spotlights of self- imagined importance.

Just cancel or postpone already. This is ridicilous.

Japan should do it in a year when people might actually go and they could possibly get some economic benefit from it. It's massive money to get the olympics so they need to recoup as much as they can in these difficult times. If postponed and it goes off nearly as it would normally the games would be a powerful testament to the glory of human recovery. 

 

They could at least market it as such and have a lot of the world soak up some type of sappy message like that. I for one hope the Olympics are never held in the USA again. 

Of course the games should go on!

 

Japan's already spent US$26 billion preparing for it!

 

Think of all the corporate sponsors who have spent tens of millions, as well as the television networks in danger of losing hundreds of millions!

 

Oh the humanity!

1 hour ago, Iron Tongue said:

Of course the games should go on!

 

Japan's already spent US$26 billion preparing for it!

 

Think of all the corporate sponsors who have spent tens of millions, as well as the television networks in danger of losing hundreds of millions!

 

Oh the humanity!

 

This is why it should be done next year. You host it this year and nobody shows up, you lock in huge losses. There is no possible upside to holding the games this year.