Whether the Tokyo Olympics ought to happen may quickly develop into apparent, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe stated on Saturday.
Coe’s feedback got here as quite a few athletes and federations known as for a delay in the competitors, which is scheduled to run from July 24 to Aug. 9, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“A decision on the Olympic Games may develop into very apparent in a short time in the approaching days and weeks,” Coe stated in a press release to Reuters.
“As I stated final week, I do not assume we must always have the Olympic Games in any respect prices, actually not at the price of athlete security.
“The subject of competitors equity is paramount,” he stated, including that athletes have been struggling to coach in varied nations as a result of measures put in place to scale back the unfold of the coronavirus which has killed 1000’s.
‘Uncharted territory for all of us’
“If we lose the extent enjoying subject, then we lose the integrity of the competitors,” Coe stated. “Nobody needs this, least of all of the athletes or the followers.”
Despite the clamour to delay the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has pressed on, saying the Games will go forward as scheduled.
“This is uncharted territory for all of us,” Coe stated.
Regional athletics officers have been requested final week to speak to federations and their athletes in order that World Athletics may get a worldwide image of the shifting panorama, with totally different elements of the world at totally different levels of the virus, Coe stated.
A gathering is scheduled for early subsequent week to overview and talk about the state of affairs.
