It seems at this point the games will be held in 2021, this seems mostly like a symbolic decision.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/23/olympics-canada-australia-wi...
Australia is distancing itself as well. I don't expect it will take long before others join in.
I can understand why the IOC (and perhaps Japan) are delaying the decision. But the Canadians are probably right, and their lead will be followed.
Can't see many countries risking their top athletes right now, anyway.
Even the opening ceremony would be a massive risk according to what's currently known.
A lot can happen in 4 weeks, but the changes that need to take place in time for the Olympics (Vaccine? Effective treatment? Scalable testing and containment?) appear to be a long way off.
And what happens if the IOC end up needing to ban certain countries still fighting the issue?
I don't understand why they don't just cut back on the number of events. Or the number of athletes/personnel allowed per country.
If the world can't get together for one global event then we are really fucked.
It would be pretty important if we could pull this off.
Part I suspect is the money in winning and how some countries won't be at 100% vs let's prove as humans we can achieve something as a global community in a crisis.
There can't be in person spectators and there will be isolations either side.
But we can do it.
And with the UK signalling that they were about to drop out as well.... we are now postponed for a year.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/52002474