Jun 11, 2020 (Nikkei) - The Summer Games hosted by Japan will not be "done with grand splendor," organizers said Wednesday night, setting up an Olympics next year that will fall short of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's original hope of holding them "in their full form."
About 200 proposals to simplify the games are being considered, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, told reporters after an executive board meeting Wednesday.
The question of attendance by spectators, whose absence would be a loss to Japan's economy, remains up in the air.
"We have already seen great progress even in the short time since the last executive board meeting," Bach said, adding that reducing the complexity of the games would in turn reduce postponement costs.
In a press briefing in Japan, Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto outlined three principles for the postponed games, the first of which is ensuring the health and safety of athletes and spectators.
Organizers are looking at reconfiguring athlete locker rooms in line with coronavirus distancing measures, and prohibiting visitors from entering the athletes' village.
The 2020 Summer Olympics were supposed to start at the end of July, but will go down in history as the first peacetime games to be postponed due to a pandemic.
Abe announced a yearlong postponement in March when the coronavirus pandemic showed no signs of abating before the summer. The postponement is expected to place an additional financial burden on Japan, which has spent an estimated $12 billion to prepare for the games.
