‘We are not living in a bubble or on another planet’: IOC president Thomas Bach hits back at calls for Tokyo 2020 to be cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak as he says they are considering ‘different scenarios’
- The International Olympic Committee still insists that Tokyo 2020 can go ahead
- There have been calls for the Games to be postponed due to coronavirus crisis
- President Thomas Bach has hit back at claims the IOC are ignoring the issue
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
International Olympic Comittee President Thomas Bach has hit back at the growing calls to postpone Tokyo 2020, insisting the governing body are not ‘living on another planet’.
The entire sporting calendar has been disrupted by the coronavirus crisis, with major events such as Euro 2020 and the Copa America postponed until next summer.
Disruption has also affected many of the qualifying events for the Games – with British boxing qualifications in London cancelled, and UK athletes being told they cannot train at the high performance centre in Loughborough unless they have Olympic qualifying times already.
President Thomas Bach insists the IOC are ‘not living in a bubble’ despite Tokyo 2020 stance
Despite concerns raised and difficulties besetting atheltes, there is an insistence from the IOC that the games will go ahead as planned.
But Bach insists that they are not oblivious to the crisis enveloping the entire globe, and has suggested that other scenarios are being considered.
‘We are affected by this crisis like everyone else and we are concerned like everybody else,’ he said in an interview with the New York Times.
‘We are not living in a bubble or on another planet.
‘We are in the middle of our societies.’