The president of World Athletics says he is concerned for the wellbeing of athletes as they prepare for the delayed Tokyo Olympic Games amid the “rumours” of cancellation.
Key points:
- Sebastian Coe remains confident the Games will go ahead
- Television rights deals provide 75 per cent of the Games’ revenue, with 90 per cent paid after the Games
- The cost of organising the Games has ballooned to more than $20 billion.
Lord Sebastian Coe, who is also a current IOC member and former UK member of Parliament, said he would not buy into any discussion around a political divide in Japan after London’s Times newspaper reported Tokyo was looking for a way out of hosting the Games.
“As a former politician I’m long enough in the tooth to know you don’t actually ever comment about the politics of someone else’s country,” Lord Coe told The Ticket.
“And I certainly don’t want to get into the well-worn fragilities of a coalition government.”
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga issued a statement on Friday saying the Government and “all our delivery partners” would continue “to make every effort to prepare for a safe and secure Games”, and Lord Coe says that is where the focus should be.
“I think the most important thing that I’ve witnessed in the last few hours, given the nature of that story, is it was immediately knocked down by the Japanese Prime Minister,” he said.
“It’s probably better for athletes, who I do have concerns about, that they’re not swept along from rumour to rumour and losing focus on what they need to really focus on.”