Olympic Games organisers are still working on the basis that overseas spectators will be able to attend the event in Tokyo next summer, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has said.
The Games were postponed by 12 months due to the coronavirus pandemic and are now scheduled to get underway on July 23 next year.
There remains a great deal of uncertainty around how many – if any – spectators will be able to watch the action in person due to social distancing measures, but Bach struck a confident tone in a press conference following the IOC’s executive board meeting on Wednesday.
“We are working on the basis there will be international spectators,” he said.
“Again, what we do not know is whether we can fill venues to full capacity or whether other measures would have to be applied.”
“We saw a very encouraging start of some of the sports leagues in Japan with a good number of spectators and then we will have to see again with the additional tools we will have at our disposal next year how we can fill the stadia and how much we can fill the stadia.”
Bach was not prepared to speculate on the prospect of the Games taking place behind closed doors and pointed to the success of staging major sports events even amid growing evidence of a second wave of coronavirus infections worldwide.
“We will not speculate about what will be in 10 months from now, a third or fourth wave or fifth wave, whatever,” he said.
“We are seeing that in the last couple of weeks, during this second wave which is obviously underway, that you can organise big and complex sporting events.”
“We are always more confident that at the beginning of next year we can add to the tools for the Covid-19 counter-measures which we will have available.”
“We can add new and even more reliable rapid tests and also a vaccine or vaccines may be available. And this makes both the organising committee and the IOC very, very confident about the opening ceremony on July 23 next year.”
Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi said there was no deadline for a decision on whether overseas spectators could attend but said there would be more clarity by December.
