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Barring Armageddon, the Tokyo Olympics will go ahead, says IOC committee member Dick Pound

 (AFP via Getty Images)
(AFP via Getty Images)

The Tokyo Olympics will go ahead as planned unless struck by an unprecedented “Armageddon”, according to leading International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound.

Doubts have been emerging in recent weeks about the delayed Games going ahead as planned with as much as 80 per cent of the public opposed to it and just 2% of the population vaccinated.

But Pound, the longest-serving IOC member, who was also the founding president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said he was fully confident the Games would begin on July 23 as anticipated.

“I really don’t know what the issue is other than you’ve got a well-informed, scientific group in contact with public health, which they say that there’s no incremental risk going ahead with the Games to the Japanese,” Pound told Standard Sport.

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“The people coming for the large measure will be vaccinated, will upon arrival be put in a bubble and kept in a bubble until they go back home.

“Organisers have now changed gears and they’re in the operational part of it. Barring Armageddon that we can’t see or anticipate, these things are a go.”

An influx of 78,000 people are expected into Tokyo for the Olympics; 11,000 athletes and, in addition, team support staff, technical officials, IOC dignitaries and the media.

Already foreign spectators have been banned from attending, with a decision over Japanese fans in the stands expected next month.

“All around the world – and I’m sure they can study the instances of what’s possible – it’s pretty clear that in football matches, golf, basketball and other sports like cycling, you can have some spectators without difficulty,” he said.

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