'Tokyo Olympics could be cancelled if coronavirus not controlled by May'

The novel coronavirus outbreak in China, and its spread to South Korea, has wrecked manufacturing plans of many industries worldwide that depend on supplies from these two countries. Sports events in the Far East have also been affected, but the coronavirus is now casting a shadow on the biggest event of them all: The Tokyo Olympics.

The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to start on July 24. In an interview to the Associated Press, Dick Pound, a member of the International Olympic Committee, noted that there was a "three-month" window to decide the fate of the games.

Pound, a former Canadian swimming champion, is the longest-serving member of the International Olympic Committee, having joined the organisation in 1978.

Pound told the Associated Press that a decision on the Tokyo Olympics would be made by late May. He noted that if conditions were not right, "you're probably looking at a cancellation," given the complexities with relocating or postponing the games.

Pound told Associated Press, “A lot of things have to start happening. You've got to start ramping up your security, your food, the Olympic village, the hotels, The media folks will be in there building their studios."

"It's a big, big, big decision and you just can't take it until you have reliable facts on which to base it," Pound told Associated Press.

Adopting an optimistic tone, Pound said the advice the IOC has got from world bodies "doesn't call for cancellation or postponement of the Olympics. You just don't postpone something on the size and scale of the Olympics. There's so many moving parts, so many countries and different seasons, and competitive seasons and television seasons. You can't just say, we'll do it in October."

Pound explained that postponing the Olympic games by a few months, but holding it in Tokyo itself, would be be complicated given television broadcasters' schedules that are allotted to other events. "It would be tough to get the kind of blanket coverage that people expect around the Olympic Games," Pound said.

Pound was also pessimistic about the possibility of the Olympics being delayed by an year. Given that Japan was spending at least $12.6 billion on the Tokyo Olympics, Pound wondered whether this infrastructure could be "kept together for an extra year". He also noted such a move would also call for reworking the international sports calendar.

Interestingly, the Board of Audit of Japan had identified billions of dollars worth in additional expenditure by government agencies, effectively meaning Japan could spend more than $26 billion on the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

Tokyo Mayor Yuriko Koike had rebuffed an offer from the London mayor to shift the Olympics to the British capital.

About 11,000 athletes are expected for the Tokyo Olympics, with another 4,400 participating in the Paralympics starting on August 25.

Ironically, the 1940 Olympics were to be held in Tokyo, but were shifted in protest against Japan's invasion of China in 1938.

The Olympic Games in Montreal (1976), Moscow (1980) and Los Angeles (1984) had seen boycotts by some nations, but not outright cancellations.