Olympics-Games will go ahead regardless of pandemic situation: Tokyo 2020 president

Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori delivers a speech at a beginning of a meeting on the preparation for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics at the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headquarters in Tokyo, Japan February 2, 2021. Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool via REUTERS

TOKYO (Reuters) - Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said on Tuesday that Japan would hold the Summer Olympics regardless of the situation with the COVID-19 pandemic and was working closely with the International Olympic Committee to make them happen.

“We will hold the Olympics, regardless of how the coronavirus (situation) looks,” Mori said, adding that the discussion should focus on how, not whether, the Olympics will happen.

“We must consider new ways of hosting the Olympics” as a part of that, he said.

Mori added that while working together had its difficulties, Tokyo 2020 organisers and the IOC had a strong relationship.

Mori was speaking at the start of a meeting with Japan’s Sports Research Commission.

The 2020 Games were postponed last year due to the global spread of the novel coronavirus.

A recent spike in infections in Japan that triggered a state of emergency in some areas has fuelled speculation about whether the rescheduled Games can be held this summer.

(Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Chris Gallagher, Kim Coghill and Peter Rutherford)