What awaits the 2020 Olympics?

Coronavirus vs Tokyo Summer Olympics.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan and personally Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faced a difficult question: what to try to to with the Summer Olympic Games? the japanese government was getting to hold them, regardless of what. However, struggling from the international community, both the Olympic functionaries of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and therefore the Japanese prime minister seem to be beginning to believe postponing the Tokyo Games 2020.

On March 22, IOC President Thomas Bach confirmed the likelihood of postponing the Olympics, and explained the delay in decision-making by the massive number of related factors that require to be taken under consideration . subsequent day, IOC member Dick Pound said that a choice on the postponement has already been made, but further action has not yet been determined.

Obviously, this step wasn't easy for them. Even when important international events and sporting events were canceled or postponed one after another (for example, UEFA has already moved the equally important European Football Championship EURO 2020 from June-July this year to the next), the IOC stressed the opposite day: has no plans to form drastic decisions and cancel the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The government of Japan also adhered to the present position, in every possible way trying to save lots of the Olympics, although it had been already clear that it might need to be held in difficult conditions. This caused tons of officially unconfirmed rumors: allegedly competitions can happen without spectators, they will be divided and held in several places, reduced in time or maybe rescheduled.

Of course, dividing, moving or reducing the participation of spectators is way from what the japanese hoped for, having won the proper to host the Games for the primary time since 1964. and therefore the Olympic Games, by the way, within the entire history of the event since 1896 were canceled only 3 times (in 1916, 1940 and 1944) - during the primary and Second World Wars. and therefore the outbreak of the deadly Zika virus shortly before the previous summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, fortunately, didn't prevent its successful implementation.

So for Japan and Shinzo Abe personally, this is, above all, a reputation challenge. Especially if you're taking under consideration the efforts of the Prime Minister spent on the struggle for the proper to host the Games in his country.

At first, in 2013, he had to convince the international community and members of the Olympic Committee that official Tokyo was on top of things of things with the extent of radiation after the explosion at a atomic power plant in Fukushima. And last year - also to face up to the dispute over the Olympic symbol. At the peak of the trade war between the 2 countries, South Korea complained to the IOC about the flag of the Rising Sun, which Japanese fans will use as a logo of recovery from the devastating tsunami and therefore the 2011 earthquake that caused a nuclear disaster. For South Koreans, this flag - a reminder of the colonial enslavement by the japanese empire (since it had been employed by the Imperial Army) - is equated with Nazi symbols, so Seoul suggests a requirement to ban its use at Olympic venues. The neighbors' attack on the Tokyo Games didn't stop there.

Last fall, South Korea released a map that illustrates the likely radiation pollution that covers most of northern Japan. There are five Olympic stadiums and therefore the start line of the Olympic torch relay in Fukushima. Thus, Seoul launched a worldwide information campaign, demanding to ban products that are produced near Fukushima and cancel all events within the city, including the relays .