TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Tokyo Olympics 'unlikely', says London 2012 official
Keith Mills, who was deputy chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, said Tokyo officials should be making plans to cancel.
Change Size
The Olympic rings are reinstalled at the waterfront in Tokyo on December 1, 2020. (Agence France Presse/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU )
T
he Tokyo Olympics look "unlikely" to go ahead as the coronavirus pandemic continues to paralyse large parts of the world, a senior official from the London 2012 Games has said.
Keith Mills, who was deputy chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, said Tokyo officials should be making plans to cancel.
Japanese and International Olympic Committee officials remain adamant the 2020 Games, already postponed for a year, will go ahead in July and August despite the ongoing health crisis.
"Personally, sitting here, looking at the pandemic around the world, in South America, North America, Africa and Europe, it looks unlikely," Mills told the BBC.
"If I were sitting in the shoes or the organisers, I would be making plans for a cancellation and I'm sure they do, but I think they will leave it absolutely the last minute in case the situation improves dramatically.
"But it is a tough call."
Tokyo and other parts of Japan are currently under a state of emergency to quash a surge in infections, and polls indicate that public support for the Olympics has plunged.
But World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said he still thought the Games would go ahead.
"I don't think it will be cancelled," Coe told Sky News. "It'll be a challenge, we know. It's pretty self-evident. There will be adaptations."
"I think the Games will take place but they will look different," he added.
