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Organising Committee of the Tokyo Olympics is expecting the dates for the event will be finalised after the Games were postponed by a year in wake of coronavirus pandemic.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Japan were maintaining the Summer Games will be held as per original schedule despite sporting events worldwide being cancelled or postponed amid the health crisis.
Under the mounting pressure from athletes and several national federations, Japan PM Shinzo Abe and IOC, in a joint announcement confirmed the deferment last Tuesday.
Now, Yoshiro Mori, president of the organising committee, has said he is expecting communication from IOC president Thomas Bach regarding the new dates.
“We need to swiftly decide on the new date,” Mori said at the start of a committee meeting. “I would imagine Bach is going to call me this week on this.”
He added, “I think the members also have their opinion. We’ve got plenty of time to exchange opinions and after that I’d expect everyone to unite and move ahead for the success of the Games in one voice.”
This is the first time in Olympics history that the Summer Games have been postponed in peacetime even though there are multiple instances from the past of the games being cancelled due to war.
Olympics were originally to start from July 24 to August 9.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK had claimed on Saturday that the Games could begin by July 23 in 2021, a nearly identical period.
The organisers are now preparing for an “unprecedented challenge” to reschedule the event of the magnitude of Olympics that requires almost seven years of planning.
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