Tokyo Olympics

IOC President Thomas Bach and other officials have been in the Japanese capital this week as a show of support for the organisers as they try to arrange the Games despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following the decision in March to postpone the Games, the Olympics are now due to begin on July 23, 2021.

Over 11,000 athletes are expected to descend on Tokyo for the Olympics and thousands more will come for the subsequent Paralympics. The majority will stay at Athletes' Village.

IOC President Thomas Bach said that his organisation was committed to delivering a safe Games and had the full support of the Japanese government following the resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but the look of next year's Games was still unclear.

"In the coming weeks you will see important and intensive discussions taking place with regard to different scenarios to COVID-19 counter measures," Bach told a news conference following an executive board meeting.

"We remain focused on delivering safe and successful Games next year."

The Welsh Rugby Union scrapped its team in a radical move that mirrored the decision taken a few weeks earlier by the RFU with its England 7s teams. 

With fears growing over the preparations of teams for the showpiece 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, the game’s global governing body have unveiled an investment strategy fund valued at $2.5million US (£1.86m) that can be accessed by teams to cover the cost of trainm  ing camps, competition support, technical and sports science and medical programmes.

One of them is 35-year-old Tetsuya Sotomura. When I met him on a sweltering afternoon earlier this week he was still hard at it in a converted factory building in a north Tokyo suburb, flying high into the air, spinning and tumbling on a massive trampoline.

Back in 2008 Tetsuya placed 4th at the Beijing Olympics, just missing a bronze medal. Since then he's fought injury that put him out of London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. Tokyo was to be his last hurrah, a hometown Olympics to end his trampolining career on a high. But another year is just too much.

Tokyo 2020 is now scheduled to run from 23 July to 8 August next year after being delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Health experts have cast doubt on whether the games could be held next summer without a vaccine or effective drugs to treat Covid-19 being found.

When asked if the event could be moved again to 2022, Mori replied: "No."

"In that case, the Olympics will be scrapped," he added.

However, the Tokyo 2020 president said he was confident the rescheduled games would go ahead.

The beach volleyballers had taken two weeks of break after a State of Emergency was declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The women’s beach volleyball team is one step away from the Olympic Games after winning the Asian Continental Cup’s Oceania Qualifier last month.

Vanuatu coach Michel was thrilled with his team’s performance.

“It’s pushing us a lot and we need this push to have good attitude and to work hard back in Vanuatu at home because we will not have many tournaments in the next two months because of the coronavirus.

Last week, the Olympics – which were due to start on July 24 – were postponed due to the global spread of coronavirus.

A joint statement from the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organising committee later clarified the Games would be moved "to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021".

The IOC has now ratified the new dates, while announcing the Paralympics will take place from August 24 to September 5.

Abe added the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would have the final decision whether Tokyo 2020 goes ahead.

"We will overcome the spread of the infection and host the Olympics without problem, as planned," Abe said.

Japan has had more than 1,400 cases and 28 deaths resulting from coronavirus.

The Tokyo Games is expected to cost about 1.35 trillion yen (£10.26bn), organisers said in December.

“Neither the word cancellation nor the word postponement was even mentioned,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach told a news conference today about the second day of executive board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Bach sought to project calm assurance after holding a conference call with local organisers. In Tokyo, officials then briefed local media, some of whom wore protective masks.

Asked how he could be so confident the July 24-August 9 Olympics will go ahead as scheduled, Bach replied: “Because we talk to the experts.”

Seiko Hashimoto's response to a question in the upper house of parliament implies the Olympics could be held later in the year and would not have to start on July 24 as planned. The Paralympics open on August 25.

The Tokyo Olympics are being threatened by a fast-spreading virus that has been blamed for 12 deaths in Japan and has shut down most schools, sports competitions and Olympic-related events in the country. The virus that started in China has been detected in at least 70 countries, with 90,000 cases and 3,100 deaths reported.