The rescheduled Tokyo Olympics will be the centrepiece of a crammed sporting year in 2021 as sports administrators who had their calendars wiped away by the novel coronavirus pandemic try to fill the gaps even as a second wave hits.
While the Games will still be called the 2020 Olympics, they have been changed by COVID-19.
Tokyo organisers and the Japanese Government are struggling with increased costs and, despite the growing possibility of vaccination, whether to allow foreign visitors and what safeguards and restrictions will apply to spectators and participants.
In early December, organisers said the delayed Games will cost at least an extra US$2.4 billion as the unprecedented peacetime postponement and a raft of pandemic health measures inflate a budget that was already over US$13 billion.
Enthusiasm appears to have waned in Japan. A poll in July showed that just one in four people wanted to see the Games held in 2021 — and a majority backed either further delay or cancellation.
“Whether it’s seen as too much or that we have done well to contain the costs, I think it depends on how you look at it,” said Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto.
Organisers have reduced the number of free tickets, scaled down the opening ceremony and made savings on mascots, banners and meals, but so far have cut just US$280 million.
Source-AFP
