The Olympics will not be held at all if they cannot be staged in 2021 due to the pandemic, according to Yoshiro Mori, the President of Tokyo 2020.
The Summer Games were postponed until next year because of the coronavirus outbreak. A date of July 23rd 2021 has been slated for the IOC event to start.
Mori is a former Japanese Prime Minister, and in an interview with Nikkan Sports, reported by Reuters, he poured cold water on the Olympics being postponed for a second time if the global public health environment did not allow it.
"No. In that case the Olympics would be scrapped."
However, Mori is confident that the Games can proceed, saying that "we have delayed the Olympics until next summer after we will have won the battle."
With the necessity of social distancing, doubts about the feasibility of hosting of the Olympic Games persist.
Yoshitake Yokokura, who is the head of the Japanese Medical Association, says it will be 'difficult' for the Games to proceed in the absence of a vaccine.
He told reporters that "I'm not saying at this point that they shouldn't be held. The outbreak is not only confined to Japan. It's a worldwide issue."
There are concerns over an estimated 11 thousand athletes from around the world congregating at close quarters in a city that has a large degree of urban sprawl and a population of over 9 million people.
The last time an Olympics was cancelled was 1944, due to World War II.
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