COVID-19 'counter-measures' for Tokyo Games to be set by end of 2020

A large size Olympic rings symbol is seen in front of Rainbow Bridge at Tokyo Waterfront in the waters of Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo, Japan, August 6, 2020. /VCG

Organizers are ploughing ahead with the postponed Tokyo Olympics and will decide by the end of the year what "counter-measures" are required to hold them safely in the time of COVID-19, International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice President John Coates said on Tuesday.

Australian Coates heads up the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Coordination Commission for the Tokyo Games, which were delayed until 2021 because of the pandemic.

Coates told reporters in Sydney that organizers were "throwing whatever resources are necessary" at the Games.

"Our decision at the moment is to go ahead," Coates said at an event marking the 20th anniversary of the 2000 Sydney Olympics' opening ceremony.

Young Australian athletes Tamsin Colley (L) and Tenayah Logan stand underneath the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games cauldron after it has been re-lit during an event to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening ceremony at Cathy Freeman Park in Sydney, Australia, September 15, 2020. /VCG

"What we wait for is to decide what counter-measures we need to go ahead with, to proceed depending on what stage COVID is at.

"The extent of the ceremonies, the extent of the crowd participation, any necessary quarantine when they arrive in Japan. All of those things.

"And by the time we get to the end of the year we'll make an assessment on what counter-measures we'll need to apply."

The Japanese government and the IOC took the unprecedented decision in March to postpone the Games, which were originally scheduled to begin in July.

IOC's vice president John Coats (L) and Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee chief Yoshiro Mori attend a meeting in Tokyo, Japan, February 13, 2020. /VCG

Tokyo officials have said they intend to put on the Games in 2021 even if the pandemic has not eased substantially.

Australia's retired five-time Olympic champion swimmer Ian Thorpe said he wanted to see the Games go ahead but was doubtful they could without a vaccine.

"First and foremost is people's health," Thorpe told reporters at the Sydney Games ceremony.

"So let's put that into perspective and if we haven't got a treatment or a vaccine for COVID, the Olympics will possibly not go ahead."

Britain's Mo Farah breaks a world record in the men's one-hour event at the Diamond League athletics meeting in Brussels, Belgium, September 4, 2020. /VCG

Four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah has said he will not defend his 5,000 meters title in Tokyo next year and will focus on the 10,000 meters race instead as age catches up with the Briton.

Farah, 37, won gold in both events at the 2012 London Games as well as the 2016 edition in Rio and is bidding to become the first athlete to win the 10,000m three times at the Olympics.

"I'm getting on a bit and I think the key thing is to stick to one event and see what I can do," Farah told the BBC.

"I'm definitely motivated, I'm still hungry and I still want it more. It would be history, and I've already made history in terms of long distance and I was the first British athlete to achieve back-to-back Olympics (gold medals).

"I have to keep enjoying it, keep smiling and I love what I do. It's going to be hard but it is possible."

Earlier this month, Farah returned to the track after three years away to break the world record for the one-hour run.

He ran a distance of 21,330 meters at the Brussels Diamond League meeting to eclipse Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie's mark, set in Ostrava 13 years ago, by 45 meters.

Source(s): Reuters