The very spectre of coronavirus appears to have no infectious effect on the Olympics Games, which are supposed to take place in Tokyo in July this year. The Olympic flame-lighting ceremony was successfully solemnised in a traditional fashion at its inception place in Greece. It will soon reach Japan where the start of four months-long relays will take place.
This developed East Asian-Pacific nation first held the Olympics in the year 1964. It hosted the Winter Olympics at Sapporo in the year 1972, and subsequently in the year 1998, hosted the Nagano Winter Olympics. The flame lighting ceremony has shown the world that even Uncle Sam’s (aka the US’) indication to postpone the global exhibition of the long-period sporting event has no effect and would surely be organised from 24th July this year.
Despite downsising of the torch arrival ceremony, IOC President Thomas Bach said that this had reaffirmed our solid commitment to holding the Games in Tokyo. The Olympics started way back in 776 BC in ancient Greece.
What deeply agonises Olympics game organisers is that if the big occasion is postponed, it will hurt the sentiments of 80,000 unpaid volunteers who desire to be a part of Olympics, hitting the sponsors of the game, and disappoint 15,000 athletes. Hotels payments and airlines expenses will also get affected, and there’ll be a loss of $1 billion (£793 million) in ticket sales, as per a news report. It holds an extremely important factor on part of the organising committee.
What must also be seen is the year-long chart of the sporting event, which disallows postponement. Meanwhile, addressing the media, Japanese minister Ms Seiko Hashimoto said in Tokyo that the IOC and the Organising Committee has no intention to cancel the games at all.
It is certainly not wartime, but the spread of coronavirus. Factually, the Olympics have been cancelled five times in the past. In the year 1916, the Summer Olympics, scheduled to be held at Berlin in Germany, were cancelled owing to the First World War. Afterwards, it was in the year 1940, when the Second World War broke out, that the Olympics had not taken place, Further, in the year 1944, the London Olympics were suspended. It was the year 1980 when the US boycotted the games, which were later boycotted by Russia in the year of 1984.