Pound insists Tokyo 2020 will go ahead barring “Armageddon”

Pound – A senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) official insists “barring an Armageddon” this year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympics will go ahead despite fresh fears from the head of a Japanese doctors’ union that the Games could create a new strain of COVID-19.

Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the IOC, has underlined the organisers’ commitment to staging the Olympics in response to growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and increasing calls for the Games to be cancelled.

Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun has recently published an editorial, urging Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to cancel Tokyo 2020 as public opposition in Japan continues to grow.

Their concerns come as the Japanese Government looks set to extend the state of emergency measures in a number of prefectures, including Tokyo, due to rising COVID-19 cases.

According to Kyodo News, a research institute predicted that the cancelling the Olympics and Paralympics would cost Japan ¥1.81 trillion (£11.73 billion/$16.57 billion/€13.59 billion).

Pound has also spoken of his confidence in the COVID-19 countermeasures that are set to be put in place by Tokyo 2020 organisers.

“I really don’t know what the issue is other than you’ve got a well-informed, scientific group in contact with public health, which say that there’s no incremental risk going ahead with the Games to the Japanese,” Pound told Standard Sport.

“The people coming for the large measure will be vaccinated, will upon arrival be put in a bubble and kept in a bubble until they go back home.

“Organisers have now changed gears and they’re in the operational part of it.

“Barring Armageddon that we can’t see or anticipate, these things are a go.”

IOC President Thomas Bach recently claimed that more than 80 per cent of people in the Athletes’ Village would be vaccinated.

John Coates, chair of the Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission, also claimed that it was now “clearer than ever” the Games would be safe for everyone participating, as well as the general public in Japan.