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A view of the Tokyo Olympic rings ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
Danny Lawson | AP Images | Getty Images
The Tokyo Olympics are set to officially begin after a year of delay, and the International Olympic Committee says organizers have done everything possible to keep the games safe as the coronavirus pandemic rages on.
“Anything that… can be done, anything that has been recommended by all these experts – some of them here with us to organize these games – we have done it,” said Christophe Dubi, IOC Executive Director for Olympic Games.
He was responding to criticism that the organization was using “cheap measures“and had not listened to the advice. Dubi told CNBC’s” Capital Connection “on Friday that the IOC had received help from many experts around the world and” was diligently following “all recommended actions.
“I think we’re doing exactly the right thing, and we don’t consider it cheap at all,” he said.
Challenges at the Olympic Games
Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Wednesday told organizers that they had done their best and that the goal was not to have no cases of Covid during the games.
“The hallmark of success is ensuring that all cases are identified, isolated, located and treated as quickly as possible, and that transmission is interrupted,” Tedros said.
Dubi of the IOC said that is what the organizers have done in recent days and will continue to do.
Looking to the future, including the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, he said the IOC has learned to create safe conditions, but the situation is “very fluid” and will continue to evolve.
“We have to prepare for the worst and we have to plan for the worst,” he said. He added that there was “no discussion” about a postponement.
The show must continue?
Earlier this week, Toshiro Muto, head of the Tokyo Olympic Games Organizing Committee, did not rule out canceling the event in the event of a peak Covid-19 case.
But Kirsten Holmes, a professor who focuses on events and tourism at Curtin University, said it would be “very difficult” for organizers to cancel the games.
For the organizing committee, it is very difficult for them not to move forward.
Kirsten holmes
Professor at Curtin University
She said the Tokyo Games will be logistically more difficult than the normal games and that flexibility will be needed. “But I think it’s highly unlikely that… all games will be stopped,” she said.
“We could see individual competitions in this setting postponed or perhaps canceled, if all competitors cannot participate,” she told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Friday.
In the absence of spectators or international visitors, Holmes said the games will be about athletes, some of whom may only have one chance to compete at this level.
“For the organizing committee it’s very difficult for them not to move forward, and that’s why… we will see the event unfold over the next two weeks and of course the Paralympics in the month. next as well, ”she said.
Disclosure: CNBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the US licensee to broadcast all Summer and Winter Games until 2032.
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