LONDON: A decision on whether to hold this summer’s Tokyo Olympics should come before the end of June, Dick Pound, the longest serving member of the International Olympic Committee, said in an online interview with Jiji Press on Tuesday.

“Before the end of June, you really need to know, yes or no,” considering people coming to Japan for the Tokyo Games, such as sponsors and television and radio crews, said Pound, former IOC vice president.

Pound said, “There will be no further postponement” after a one-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “They go ahead, or they cancel,” he said of the games now scheduled to start in July.

“I think the cost of a further postponement, which would fall on Japan, would be considerable,” Pound said. He also said the international sports calendar for 2022 is already in place, including the Beijing Winter Olympics in February.

The IOC member said that if COVID-19 clusters hit the athletes’ village or Olympic venues during the games, the event will have to be canceled.

“If there’s a huge outbreak that is really out of control in Japan and the Japanese public health authorities say it’s too dangerous, we can’t proceed,” he said.

“That’s a decision that Japan will have to make, probably in consultation with or together with the IOC and the public health authorities,” Pound said.

Spectators from abroad have already been banned amid the pandemic. A decision on what to do about domestic live spectators will be made in June.

“It’s probably unlikely that (venues will) be 100 pct full, but also probably likely that some (spectators) will be allowed,” Pound said. Still, “It is possible to have an event, even as big as the Olympics, without spectators if necessary,” he said.

JIJI Press