The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© 2020 AFPTokyo Olympics will go ahead with or without COVID, says IOC's Coates
By Kazuhiro NOGI SYDNEY©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© 2020 AFP
47 Comments
Login to comment
Bugle Boy of Company B
Well that just sounds like money being wasted. What sort of “maintenance” needs to be done on a giant ring? And 69 tons!? Stupid and meaningless!
sakurasuki
It appears that, it will take place with or without spectators, with or without athletes.
oldman_13
Of course it would.
The IOC needs the money.
kokoro7
IOC = Idiots on Covid
Geoff Gillespie
Anyone else of the opinion that he's gonna live to regret those comments...?
Yubaru
The Olympics that no one came to!
indigo
Bribes need to be paid. simply
Aly Rustom
Coates is a corrupt scumbag who should not be in charge of any event- unless its competitive eating. This man, alongside Mori, has been a complete buffoon and has steered the Olympics in the wrong direction for a long time.
dbsaiya
Faintly reminiscent of Rummy's "you go to war with the army you have...." Softback HMMWVs and IEDs didn't make for a nice combination. You think maybe the IOC and JOC are treading down the same path?
porto
Largely closed to foreign residents too. Maybe the gov't should have priorities other than the Olympic money pit on the table at the moment.
TrevorPeace
This is getting pathetic. A multi-billion dollar enterprise that abuses people who want to show they can win. Welcome to 21st century slavery. And all for the might buck. Crash is imminent.
TrevorPeace
'mighty' buck. Sorry.
James
Well I won't be watching or going I have already gotten my refund as it is questionable that nations such as New Zealand or Australia will be sending athletes to a Covid infested Olympics.
i@n
Despite Japan having covid largely under control til now, so many people still with their defeatist attitude.
Who's the sheep now.
GW
Coates is LYING big time here, coming across as a total idiot!
As a Canuck, seeing Canada pulled their team when it was obvious Houston had a MAJOR problem.....a problem STILL here, if the IOC doesnt do whats right then I can see countries deciding on their own their teams wont be going & once it starts it WILL snowball!!
And then there is the winter games in Beijing, they have the double whammy of covid & Hong Kong, lets see if the world has the stones to cancel those games.....
Whatever happens over the next 18months or so I hope the current style Olympics DIES! I really needs to be re-thought, re-imagined, its current form is just UGLY UGLY UGLY!!
stickman1760
It doesn’t matter if “Japan has Covid largely under control’ what matters is the situation in countries that will be sending thousands of athletes and officials. The games should be cancelled. Pure and simple.
James
@i@n
As an at risk of death person (due to hereditary condition) I do not think of it as a defeatist attitude.
The only reason that it has been largely under control here in Japan is because most people have been doing things to reduce the risk such as masks disinfectant etc. The only reason it is starting to lose control now is due to the Japanese Government's ridiculous promotions for people to go out and catch covid.
kurisupisu
Stay Home
Go to travel
&
Go to Olympics
The endless commands...
i@n
That is mentioned in the article, they are thinking of ways to address that, and it will be enormously difficult.
If they are simple minded they would have given up immediately
i@n
@James
If these are true then implementing proper control measures then indeed could make the Olympics possible
Sam Watters
So the IOC now can override the sovereignty of Japan? Wow! On a lighter note, you know you are a scumbag organization when everyone on this board agrees that your organization should be thrown into an outhouse and set on fire!
Goodlucktoyou
Covid19 threat is not as serious as the millions of people suffering and many die from heat attack, especially people in wheelchairs. The impact for Japan will come months later after people from all over the world, with different mutations and approaches on containment and reaction to SARS-CoV-2, wander around aimlessly coughing and sweating everywhere.
MilesTeg
So basically he's saying that he doesn't care what the status of Covid-19 will be in July next year. Whether spectators or athletes are able to attend and participate is irrelevant the Olympics will go on regardless. I can only speak for myself but I think many Japanese feel the same way; the Olympics have become irrelevant.
Designer 02
Unbelievable show of arrogance. How do they know what will be happening next year.
bokuda
In olden times Olympics where the gathering of cultures and athletes.
Now it will become a bunch of politicians watching 1 athlete running alone against the stopwatch.
Ego Sum Lux Mundi
You people thought corrupt, vested interests on that scale were just going to go quietly into the night? No way! They've had you tax payers on the hook for years via your so-called "elected representatives" and they aren't about to let you wriggle free now!
Luddite
Cancel the Games now. Unless an effective vaccine is widely available before they start no one will come.
socrateos
Wow. I am curious about the process in which the decision was reached. I want know who said what, etc.
Do the hustle
Hopefully, all the quarantine regulations will be lifted and a viable vaccine will be available by then. If not, this guy is just blowing smoke. Has he considered how athletes will train under quarantine? How would swimmers train? Or, track and field athletes? I can just see them training for the hammer throw in their hotel rooms and swimming in bath tubs.
borscht
So if the coronavirus builds up a second wave (as almost all pandemics in the last 200 years have), and endangers many more people so that countries like Canada will say, nope, not going to die for a footrace in Japan, the Olympics will go on. Good to know. Now I can make my plans for being in Tokyo during the hottest, most humid time of the year.
Pukey2
Is it possible to have the Olympics with no athletes?
rainyday
Easy for him to say, the day the thing is over he can walk away from Tokyo and never set foot there again. What does he care if there are super spreader events? Nothing, just the same as he doesn't care that 10s of billions of dollars of other people's money has already been wasted on this fiasco.
Goodlucktoyou
You never watched the Gladiator movies?
I’m not a geek, but there is Robot Wars. Unfortunately Boston Dynamics will win, Japanese robots still can’t enter Fukushima Dainichi.
Sven Asai
Another orchestra playing till the end , as we already know it from the movie’s.
InspectorGadget
To hell with the health of the athletes, support staff and locals. We want the money!!!!
How can they possibly say that?
Serrano
The Games will start on July 23 next year
This is gonna suck so bad.
smithinjapan
Look at these two old men in the photo... anything -- death, debt, despair... so long as they get their pockets lined. The IOC is going to have no problem dropping the entire bill on Japan despite the failure, and when Japan asks for the IOC to help pay, and no problem blaming Japan for that failure, when Japan seeks to distance itself and claim it was not their fault.
ushosh123
Not a big deal, athletes will elect not to come if they don't feel safe. If it fails it fails, would have been destined to fail either way.
Dango bong
nice pic of two WORTHLESS people
garth
And it's not just Coates. According to the BBC today:
"AT ANY COST"?? WTF??
Jim
IOC is run by a bunch of corrupt people who don’t care about the actual reasons of having the Olympic Games. They don’t value the history and essence of the Olympics! To them it’s just about making money and filling in their pockets! Olympics was all about athletes in the past but it’s become so corrupt full of bribery and money siphoning that it’s just pathetic! If you just look at the faces of these IOC officials and hear them speak you’ll realize how corrupt they are!