Tokyo 2020 CEO says 80% of venues secured for Olympics

Tokyo, June 12 (IANS) Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto said on Friday that 80 per cent of the competition venues have been secured for the rescheduled Olympic Games in 2021.

Muto told reporters that those secured venues include the new National Stadium and that negotiations are ongoing to secure other facilities, reports Xinhua news agency.

“We will hopefully try to use the same venues,” he said. “The adjustment still remains but we are able to use 80 per cent of the facilities we were originally supposed to use.”

Muto cautioned that there was no guarantee that the Games would be able to take place in the summer of 2021, but he also expressed his commitment that Tokyo 2020 will take all measures possible to host a safe Games.

“I don’t think there is anyone that can really promise that the Olympics and Paralympics will be held in 2021 for sure, 100 per cent in any circumstance,” he said.

“But we need to show the commitment that we will be opening the Games next year.”

“As long as we have sufficient measures against COVID-19, we will make sure the Games are held in 2021.”

The Tokyo metropolitan government lifted its “Tokyo alert” on Thursday and business restrictions in the Japanese capital have been further eased from Friday. But the future of the Games will still depend on whether the pandemic can be controlled elsewhere, especially in the United States, Latin America and Africa.

Muto said that Tokyo 2020 will “monitor the overseas situation and hear the experts’ opinion” and will “come up with specific measures”.

He reiterated the three principles that Tokyo 2020 will follow in preparing for the postponed Games, which the IOC has agreed to.

The top priority is to “ensure a safe environment”, he said. The second is to “minimise the postponement cost”, and the third is to “make the Games simple”.

–IANS

dm/aak/bbh/