Gao Qiao, a member of the Executive Committee of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, said a few days ago that considering the impact of the current Coronavirus epidemic, it is a realistic choice to postpone the Tokyo Olympic Games for one to two years. However, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee later issued a statement saying that the Olympic Games would open on time on July 24.
Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, March 11, Takahashi, a member of the executive committee of Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, said a few days ago that considering the impact of the current Coronavirus epidemic, it is a realistic choice to postpone the Tokyo Olympic Games for one to two years. However, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee later issued a statement saying that the Olympic Games would open on time on July 24.
In an interview with American media, Takahashi said: “I don’t think the Tokyo Olympics will be canceled, and it will be postponed.”
He pointed out that canceling the competition or letting the competition be held without the audience would cause huge economic losses. He believes that it is difficult to postpone less than a year, because it will conflict with the holding time of many major sports events around the world, such as American baseball, American football, basketball and European football.
He suggested delaying the competition for two years, which was the easiest choice, because one year later, other sports events that have been planned have almost been completed.
Takahashi is one of the 25 executive committees of Tokyo Olympic organizing committee. He used to be the senior managing director of Japan’s largest advertising company, Dentsu company. He also said in an interview: “If the Olympic games are canceled, the IOC will be in trouble. The retransmission fee paid to them by American TV stations alone is a lot of money.”
He also said that the executive committee had not discussed the impact of the epidemic on the Olympic Games. The last meeting of the executive committee was on last December before the outbreak of the epidemic; The executive committee will meet again at the end of this month, conduct in-depth consultations on this issue.
Some analysts believe that in view of the increasing trend of the epidemic in Europe and the United States, it seems very difficult to hold the Tokyo Olympic Games on time. Although the epidemic in Japan does not seem to be serious, if the epidemic in other areas is not effectively controlled in the next few months, the Tokyo Olympics will not be held on schedule.
Tokyo Olympic organizing committee later issued a statement, saying that he did not know the proposal of Takahashi rule, and stressed again that the Olympic Games would open on time on July 24.
The organizing committee said in a statement: “We don’t know the content and details of his conversation. We have not considered delaying the Olympic Games. The preparations for the Olympic Games are proceeding as planned.”