[AustralianFan 28]

‘The Games will go ahead’: Coates shuts down talk of Tokyo cancellation

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We’ve spent the first half of last year identifying all the worse-case scenarios, we’ve spent the next six months looking at the counter  measures. We’re implementing those countermeasures, they have all been predicated on no vaccines. That situation has improved, the Games are going ahead.

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There are no hypotheticals, there is no Plan B. The Tokyo Olympics are going ahead come July 23, according to John Coates, as the IOC backs its COVID protocols and vaccination program to trump the potential of a coronavirus outbreak.

 

Coates, who is vice-president of the International Olympic Committee as well as president of the Australian Olympic Committee, said on Saturday that there had been no talk about a late cancellation of the Games by planners or the Japanese government, even as emergency restrictions in Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto were extended until the end of the month.

 

With the IOC now striking deals with major vaccine manufacturers, to complement already running programs across the world, Coates suggested some 90 per cent of the attending athletes would be vaccinated.

 

Under the IOC Playbook, they are strictly segregated from the Japanese public, with a decision on whether local fans can attend to be made closer to the Games.

 

“We don’t think that’s the case. At the moment, the Games will go ahead, there’s no need for us to be hypothetical,” Coates said.

 

“We’ve spent the first half of last year identifying all the worse-case scenarios, we’ve spent the next six months looking at the countermeasures.“

 

“We’re implementing those countermeasures, they have all been predicated on no vaccines.”

 

”That situation has improved, the Games are going ahead.”

 

Coates denied the IOC was putting the health of athletes and Japanese citizens at risk for commercial reasons, or as part of a vanity project for Games officials.
 

He said the Olympics had always been about the athletes and that could never be more true than in Tokyo, where they will live and compete with little outside social interaction.

 

“If we were doing that, we would have pushed ahead with them last year. We didn’t,” Coates said.

 

“The motivation is so these athletes can pursue what they have been dreaming of ... I don’t want these kids to miss the one opportunity they may have in their lifetime. It’s so these kids can fulfil their dream.“

 

“I was at the Australian Rowing Championships four weeks ago, they are just desperate to compete. They knew the parents aren’t going, they just want to compete, want to test themselves. That’s what most of it is all about.”

By Phil Lutton  May 8, 2021

Credit: Brisbane Times - click to read more

[AustralianFan 28]

The Tokyo Games are going ahead in a unique Olympic Bubble which they have been preparing meticulously for 12 months for on the basis of NO VACCINE being available.

 

The fact there is now a vaccine available  is a is a bonus for the organisers.

 

The Games are going ahead in Tokyo in 75 days time, as planned.

 

A petition is not going to change anything.

 

The Japanese Prime Minister just said last week to the US President that the Games are going ahead as planned in Tokyo.

 

The Japanese Organising Committee just said it.

 

 

The International Olympic Committee just said it.