PARIS – Growing Calls For Postponing Olympics 2020. The president of the French Athletics Federation, on Sunday, joined calls for postponing Olympics 2020 in the wake of Coronavirus pandemic.
According to details, he said he did not understand why the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was refusing to postpone Olympics. Andre Giraud joined a swelling chorus of objections when he told AFP that the French National Olympic Committee (CNOSF) must “take a stand”.
He said that the IOC should already be thinking of what he called “Plan C”, a postponement to 2021. How can we bring together 11,000 athletes in less than four months in the Olympic village? I appeal to the CNOSF to take action with the IOC. We need a national position of solidarity,” he said.
IOC president Thomas Bach has signalled his determination to press ahead with the Games in Tokyo from July 29 to August 9, telling the New York Times that postponement “would not be responsible now” as “we are four-and-a-half months away from the Games”. Growing Calls For Postponing Olympics 2020.
The US and Spanish athletics federations have also asked for a postponement. Sebastian Coe, the head of World Track and Field, hinted that he was leaning that way. “I don’t think we should have the Olympic Games at all costs,” said Coe, who ran the 2012 London Games. “A decision on the Olympic Games may become very obvious very quickly.”
On Friday USA Swimming said they wanted the Games postponed. They were soon joined by France’s swimming federation and the Norwegian Olympic Committee as well as likely competitors.