Games will be a go but no frills: IOC's Pound

OTTAWA • The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) longest-serving member has assured that the Tokyo Games are "a go", as IOC officials huddled with local organisers for online talks.

"There's nothing to indicate that there's an elephant in the room that we don't know about," Dick Pound said two months before the scheduled start of the Games, which have already been delayed by a year due to the pandemic.

Japanese public sentiment is against the mega event, with polls showing a majority in the country want the Olympics delayed further or cancelled.

Kyodo also reported yesterday that the Canadian swimming team cancelled their pre-Olympic training plan in Japan over concerns about the pandemic.

The team of about 60 swimmers and coaches, who were due to stay in Toyota city, are the latest of some 50 delegations that have pulled out of pre-Olympic training camps.

"Based on everything we know today, it's a go... I have my ticket. If the host country (Japan) doesn't want to host, it doesn't host," Pound said, but added that the IOC ultimately retains "the power to cancel the Games if the conditions are dangerous enough".

Organisers have outlined extensive virus countermeasures to keep the Olympics safe. But, with Japan battling a fourth wave of infections, doctors' associations have warned that the healthcare system is already overstretched and the Games could add further stress.

As planned, there will be less "celebratory stuff, the streets (won't be) filled with athletes and spectators and so on. The excitement of being in an Olympic city, that's going to be a lot more subdued", Pound said.

Athletes will be tested for Covid-19 at Tokyo airport upon arrival and then effectively isolated at the Olympic Village. After competing, they will be asked to leave the country quickly.

"It's not going to have all the frills and bells and whistles that we've come to expect," the Canadian said. "There will be Olympic competitions and the athletes from all 206 countries are expected to participate."

He downplayed the likelihood of forcing a cancellation. He drew parallels with the 1984 Los Angeles Games in which there were concerns "about how many Olympic athletes were going to die because of the smog", and a Zika virus outbreak before the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

In the end, no foreign visitors to the Rio Games contracted the virus.

If the Games are cancelled at the last minute, Pound said, "certainly there would be massive disappointment on the part of the athletes, (and) around the world that this opportunity could not be seized upon".

The IOC, sponsors and broadcasters are insured for that eventuality, he added.

Financial losses resulting from a cancellation "would be significant" but it "would not put the entire international sports system or the Olympic movement in dire straits".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS