On March 24, Abe and Japan, led by Yoshiro Mori, met with the IOC, led by Bach, and finalized an agreement to postpone the Olympic Games for one year.
Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, April 29, Yoshiro Mori decrypts the inside story of the extension of Tokyo Olympic Games
Xinhua news agency reporters Prince Jiang and Yi Ye
in early February, at the beginning of the outbreak of the new Crown epidemic, yoshiro Mori, chairman of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, raised the issue of the extension of the Olympic Games with some subordinates, although all public speeches still insisted that the Olympic Games would be held as scheduled.
When decrypting the inside story of the extension of the whole Olympic games in the journal Sports, Yoshiro Mori said that on February 4, Diamond Princess Cruises was parked port of Yokohama, and the epidemic crisis on the ship continued to expand, since he had the experience of coping with the Okinawa epidemic when he was prime minister, he keenly felt that the Olympic Games could not be held as scheduled.
He then told some cadres of the Olympic organizing committee that the Olympic Games may be postponed for half a year or a year. Everyone must make a plan for the extension, but they still cannot let go when making public statements.
“If Japan does not express the attitude of holding as scheduled, it will be impossible to stretch it first, Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, will probably choose to cancel the Olympic Games directly.” Mori said.
“Of course, the Olympic Games cannot be canceled. Athletes have been looking forward to it for a long time. If the economic loss is canceled, it will be huge.”
In order to ensure that the Olympic games are postponed rather than canceled, Yoshiro Mori hopes to transport the Olympic flame to Japan as soon as possible, which requires that no matter what happens, the igniting ceremony held in Greece on March 12 must be held, the flame must arrive in Japan on March 20 as scheduled.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was anxious and hoped to hold talks with Bach as soon as possible to discuss the delay, but Yoshiro Mori told him that the talks with Bach were secondary, it should be supported by the heads of the seven countries first, and Bach passed naturally.
On March 19, the heads of the seven countries held a video conference. Although Abe said in Congress the next day that all leaders expressed support for holding the Olympic games as scheduled at the conference, and reiterated that the Tokyo Olympic Games will be held as scheduled. But Trump later revealed at the White House press conference that everyone did talk about delaying the Olympic Games.
Yoshiro Mori said that he thought Abe did get the support of the leaders of other six countries at the meeting.
On March 20, after suffering, the Olympic flame arrived in Japan by special plane, and Yoshiro Mori breathed a sigh of relief.
“The flame arrived in Japan, which is good news for the extension.” He said, “otherwise it is also possible for the Olympic Games to be canceled.”
At that time, members of the International Olympic Committee of many countries made comments about the extension or even cancellation of the Olympic Games every day. The comments of many international organizations were also very unfavorable to the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee. Bach was facing great pressure, but it always stands with Tokyo. At this time, Japan must stand up and take the lead in proposing the idea of extension.
On March 22, Yoshiro Mori held a video conference with Bach. The two sides reached an agreement that the Olympic Games could be postponed, but it must not be canceled. It can be seen that the arrival of the flame played a very important role. Yoshiro Mori revealed after the meeting: “We will carefully study the extension and hope to complete the relevant details within 4 weeks.”
Since then, Japan has put forward two plans: one year and two years. Mori also knows that two years is the safest way, because no one can guarantee that the epidemic will end in one year. However, it is impossible to postpone for two years. Firstly, many athletes cannot wait for two years. Secondly, there will be Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. Thirdly, from the perspective of operation, it is not feasible to postpone it for two years.
“Finally, the prime minister decided to postpone it for one year.”
On March 23, Abe said that postponing the Tokyo Olympic Games was one of the options. This was the first time Abe had let go that the Tokyo Olympic Games might be postponed, while three days ago he said in Congress, tokyo will host a “complete” Olympic and Paralympic Games.
What Abe didn’t expect was that on the same day, the Canadian Olympic Committee announced that in view of the risk of the new Crown epidemic, it would not send a team to participate in the summer of 2020, and asked to postpone the Tokyo Olympic Games and the Tokyo Paralympic Games for one year.
All the programs were forced to speed up, and the four weeks of Yoshiro Mori’s talk with Bach turned into two days. On March 24, Abe and Japan, led by Yoshiro Mori, met with the IOC, led by Bach, and finalized an agreement to postpone the Olympic Games for one year.
The Olympics were postponed, but the trouble was far from over.