Tokyo 2020 Tops IOC Executive Board Agenda

(ATR) The IOC Executive Board’s new monthly meeting schedule begins on Wednesday with an agenda highlighted by the latest reports on Tokyo 2020.

During the video conference, both the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and the chair of the IOC Coordination Commission John Coates will deliver reports on the effort to ready Tokyo to host an Olympics postponed by one year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

There will also be an update from the IOC’s Tokyo 2020 task force. After last month’s meeting on May 14, IOC President Thomas Bach said the first priority for the task force was to secure the Olympic Village and the venues for an Olympics that is being held 12 months later than originally planned.

Earlier this week, the governor of Tokyo Yuriko Koike told the Financial Times that the Games may not be able to be held if there is not an international deal in place to allow athletes and spectators from all 206 competing countries to attend.

"A basic precondition for the Olympics is that the people of the world can come," Koike said to the Financial Times, adding that she wanted to continue preparations for the Games while refusing to say they would definitely be held.

Bach reiterated to reporters after last month’s EB meeting that the IOC is focused on holding the Tokyo Games in July 2021.Bach said it’s "way too early to draw any conclusions" as to potential parameters that might be necessary in order to hold the event.

In addition to Tokyo 2020, Wednesday’s EB meeting will also include presentations on Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024. The latter is to include a report from the IOC Coordination Commission chair Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant.

Also on the agenda are preparations for the next IOC Session on July 17, the first to be held virtually.

The EB decided last month to hold the Session remotely due to the pandemic. It was also announced that the EB would meet twice in July, once a few days before the Session and then again a few days after.

IOC President Thomas Bach will be holding a teleconference with reporters following Wednesday’s EB meeting.

Homepage photo: ATR

Written by Gerard Farek

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