IOC CHIEF BACH RULES OUT CANCELLATION OF GAMES

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach reiterated the IOC’s commitment to delivering the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games this summer, adding that preparation work for Beijing 2022 is also progressing steadily.

“We are fully concentrated on and committed to the successful and safe delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, starting on 23 July (2021) with the Olympic Games and 24 August with the Paralympic Games,” Bach said at a media conference after an IOC executive board meeting on Wednesday, Xinhua news reports.

Speaking about Beijing 2022, the IOC chief said: “We can say, even one year before, that all the (competition) venues are ready, the technical preparations are excellent.”

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, all 12 Beijing 2022 competition venues have been completed, a high-speed railway linking Beijing and co-host Zhangjiakou is now operational, and nearly one million volunteer applications have been received.

The Tokyo Games were originally to have taken place last summer, but were postponed to this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, becoming the first Olympics in peacetime to suffer that fate.

With Japan hit by a resurgence of the virus in recent months, media reports claimed that the Games would once again be postponed and may even be cancelled.