Olympics In Odaiba Is On

Video shows 2009 Japan Swimming Federation’s Tokyo Marathon Swimming Championships in Odaiba Marine Park, Tokyo Bay, Japan.

Even as the coronavirus has spread to six continents, Tokyo Olympics will most likely go ahead as planned reported the Japan Times, an English-language newspaper based in Japan.

“All indications are, at this stage, that it will be business as usual,” said Dick Pound, the longest serving member of the International Olympic Committee told the Japan Times. “So keep focused on your sport and be sure that the IOC is not going to send you into a pandemic situation.”

There is a lot of economic pressure to keep the Olympic Games on schedule as planned. In addition to bringing over 11,000 athletes from over 200 nations to participate in the Olympics (starting July 24th) and Paralympic Games (starting August 25th), the city of Tokyo has spent US$12.4 billion on its preparations, IOC has spent US$5.5 billion, and the Japanese federal government has spent U$1.35 billion.

Tadamasa Fukiura, a former member of the Tokyo Organizing Committee for the 1964 Olympics and adviser to the 1998 Nagano Winter Games commented, “The Olympics probably won’t be canceled unless the number of domestic cases in Japan reaches the tens of thousands. The more realistic question is whether spectators and athletes will still want to come even as the situation continues to worsen.”

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