LAUSANNE • Turning the Tokyo 2020 Olympics into a closed-door event is "clearly something we don't want", International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach has said.
Safety remains the top concern for organisers of the quadrennial Games, which were scheduled to start next week but have been postponed until July 23-Aug 8 next year owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
Doubts remain over the Games being held under the current circumstances, let alone fans being permitted to attend.
Bach has admitted "multiple scenarios" are under consideration for the rescheduled Olympics, but signalled his reluctance to hold the Games in empty stadiums, now an all too common sight in sport amid the pandemic.
"Olympic Games behind closed doors is clearly something we do not want," the IOC president told reporters in a video call.
"So we are working for a solution of the Olympic Games which, on one hand, is safeguarding the health of all the participants and, on the other hand, is also reflecting the Olympic spirit.
"For this reason, we are working now on multiple scenarios of the organisation of the Games with regard to the health situation of which we do not know how it will be in one year from now."
Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have both warned that it would be hard to postpone the Games beyond next year, raising the nightmare scenario of the first Olympics to be cancelled in peace time - they have only ever been scrapped during the world wars.
Yet it is a possibility if a vaccine or effective treatment is not developed in time, and countries are unable to contain the pandemic that continues to rage unabated, killing more than 580,000 people to date.
If the IOC is forced to axe the Tokyo Games, that would most likely trigger a domino effect, taking out the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as well, according to long-time IOC member Dick Pound. The Beijing Games are scheduled for Feb 4-20, just six months after the Tokyo event.
"Taking the political side out of it for the moment, say there is a Covid-19 problem in July and August next year in Tokyo, it is hard to imagine there is not going to be a knock-on effect in the same area five months later," Pound told Reuters in a phone interview.
The Winter Olympics could be further complicated by an increasingly fractured relationship between the United States and hosts China, and the Canadian is fearful "all kinds of crazy things could happen".
For now, the IOC will hold its 136th Session virtually today, with the agenda solely centred on reports and concerns about "dealing with Tokyo".
On Wednesday, Japan's capital moved its coronavirus alert to red, the highest level, after a resurgence of cases.
It reported a single-day record of 286 infections yesterday, bringing Japan's total to around 23,000 cases.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
