Tokyo Olympics will have fans: IOC chief

Tokyo: International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach said Monday he is now “very, very confident” that spectators will be able to attend next year’s Tokyo Olympics, as he kicked off a visit aimed at boosting momentum for the pandemic-postponed Games.

Spiralling infections and new lockdowns around the world have renewed scepticism that the massive international event will be possible if the pandemic is not under control by opening day, now scheduled for July 23, 2021.

But organisers and Japanese officials have insisted that they can hold the event, and are drawing up a raft of coronavirus countermeasures intended to make the Games safe even if the pandemic is not over.

“We are putting really a huge tool box together in which we will put all the different measures we can imagine,” Bach said, after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for talks that began with the two masked men fist-bumping for the cameras.

“Next year… we will be able to take (the) right tools out of this tool box and apply them in order to ensure safe environment for all participants in the games. This makes us all very, very confident that we can have spectators in the Olympic stadia next year,” Bach said.

The Olympic chief also pledged that the IOC would “undertake great efforts” to make sure as many participants and spectators as possible are vaccinated before arriving in Japan, if a vaccine is available by next summer.

Bach, on his first trip to Tokyo since the Games were postponed in March, is hoping to convince athletes, Japanese citizens and Olympics sponsors that the Games can be held safely next year.

Polls show a majority of Japan’s public believe the Games should be postponed further, or cancelled altogether. And more than 60 percent of domestic sponsors have yet to commit to extending their contracts for another year, domestic media reported this weekend.

But there are glimmers of hope for organisers and Japanese officials, who have insisted a further delay is not on the table, and that cancellation is not being discussed.