World Athletics (WA) president Sebastian Coe has admitted that the new dates of the Tokyo Olympics will not please everybody after the Games were postponed due to the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“All sports have made it pretty clear they have particular challenges at particular times of the year. We are probably not going to reach a solution that meets with the approval of every sport,” Coe said as quoted by PTI via AFP.
“But there does have to be an element of flexibility and there is going to be flexibility for the next two years,” added the WA chief who has already tabled the option to postpone next year’s World Athletics Championships, scheduled to be staged in Eugene, Oregon, in August, to accommodate the Olympics at that time.
The Tokyo Olympics, which were scheduled to start on July 24, were postponed after Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach held a teleconference call amid growing pressure from all ranks to reschedule the Games due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Following the postponement, the organisers of the Tokyo Olympics decided to set up a task force whose main job is to urgently finalise the dates and prepare the schedule of the postponed event.
Meanwhile, the IOC chief earlier this week said that the Games will happen beyond 2020 but not later than the summer of 2020.
“This is not restricted just to the summer months. All the options are on the table, before and including the summer of 2021,” Bach said in a conference call on Wednesday as quoted by PTI via AFP.
There have also been suggestions that the rebooted Olympics could be staged in the spring to make sure the athletes are not subjected to the grueling heat of summer in Japan.
“There are clearly demands for this decision to be taken as quickly as possible — the athletes and the federations need clarity. Once the decision is made, we can build (the calendars) around it,” WA president said.