A member of the Tokyo organizing committee suggested delaying the Games. Organizers said he spoke out of turn. Organizers of this summer’s Tokyo Olympics sought to dispel confusion on Wednesday over whether the Games would proceed as scheduled, after a member of the local organizing committee said he would recommend a postponement of the event because of the coronavirus outbreak. Amid a backdrop of growing confusion in the global sports landscape about whether events that draw large crowds should proceed, Yoshiro Mori, the chairman of the Tokyo organizing committee, held a news conference to reiterate the position of local organizers and the International Olympic Committee that the Games remained on track to open in late July.
“Our basic stance is to proceed with our preparation and to hold a safe Olympics,” Mr. Mori said. Standing at his side was Haruyuki Takahashi, a member of the local organizing committee who had earlier caused a stir by telling The Wall Street Journal that a delay of one or two years would be the most prudent option if the Olympics could not be held as planned this summer. Mr.
Mori said that speculation about a possible postponement represented only the opinion of Mr. Takahashi, who apologized for his comments. An International Olympic Committee spokesman said on Wednesday that the committee backed Mr. Mori’s statements.
The Japanese Olympic minister, Seiko Hashimoto, also responded to the comments on Wednesday, remarking in parliament that it was “impossible” that the Games would be delayed. But later in the day, seemingly adding to the confusion, Kyodo News released an interview with Mr. Takahashi in which he stated that he would propose a delay at the next committee meeting in April. Those comments were apparently made before he backtracked and issued a public apology.
The Tokyo organizers’ attempts to quash speculation about possible disruptions came as a cascade of cancellations, closings and general confusion played out across the global sports landscape. In Argentina, for example, news media reports said the government had banned all sporting events for the rest of the month. At a hearing held by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in Washington on Wednesday, Anthony Fauci, a leading expert on infectious diseases, recommended that professional sporting events in the United States be played without spectators. The Golden State Warriors on Wednesday became the first N.
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B. A. team to say it would bar fans from home games in response to the virus, and the N. C.
A. A. announced similar measures for its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. “We would recommend that there not be large crowds,” said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“If that means not having any people in the audience when the N. B. A. plays, so be it.
But as a public health official, anything that has large crowds is something that would give a risk to spread. ” Get an informed guide to the global outbreak with our daily coronavirus
newsletter. That measure was already being taken in some of Europe’s biggest soccer leagues and continental tournaments, with games being played this month in front of empty stands or in some cases being postponed altogether.
“In England, a game on Wednesday between Arsenal and Manchester City was postponed because several Arsenal players had come into close contact in recent days with the owner of a Greek club who had tested positive for the virus.”
Also on Wednesday, UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, announced that two Europa League knockout-round matches involving Italian teams and Spanish opponents — Inter Milan vs. Getafe and Sevilla vs. Roma — would not be played as a result of new travel restrictions between Spain and Italy imposed by the Spanish government. UEFA will soon have even larger decisions to make.
Euro 2020, its quadrennial continental championship tournament, is scheduled to begin in June, with 24 national teams playing in stadiums across 12 countries. As sports organizations grappled with their decisions, updates from other sports organizations worldwide produced an incessant, disorderly drumbeat of bad news. On Wednesday, for instance, the International Tennis Federation said the Fed Cup finals, a women’s team event scheduled for April in Budapest, would be postponed as Hungary banned gatherings of more than 100 people indoors and 500 outdoors. In Montreal, the World Figure Skating Championships, scheduled to start next Wednesday, were canceled.
And in Are, Sweden, Mikaela Shiffrin, a three-time defending Alpine skiing World Cup champion, was denied a chance to claim another title when the final races of the season were canceled less than 24 hours before they were set to begin. “I do think it was the right call for these races to be canceled,” said Shiffrin, who finished the season in second place after missing six weeks following the death of her father. “It affects me on multiple levels, but it affects the entire world, really. ” These decisions could serve as a preview of what might happen with the Olympics, the biggest sporting event in the world.
The scrutiny will only grow sharper in the coming weeks. Noting that “many questions remain unanswered,” two influential United States senators pressed the I. O. C.
on Wednesday to offer “a transparent, detailed description of protocols in place to deter further spread of the disease. ” “This public event, particularly with an exposed population that has a wide distribution geographically, is concerning,” the senators, Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, and Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, warned in a letter to Thomas Bach, the I. O. C.
president. “If not handled properly, this year’s Olympic Games present a dangerous opportunity for Covid-19 to spread at unprecedented levels throughout the globe. ” The senators asked the I. O.
C. to respond to seven questions, including one about contingency plans in the event of a confirmed case during the Games, by April 10. But the senators stopped short of urging that the Games be called off and said that cancellation should be “a last resort. ” Mr.
Mori, the Toyko Olympic chairman, acknowledged at his news conference that the coronavirus eventually could affect the Games. “I think there is an impact,” he said. “But now, experts are discussing the response to it and the W. H.
O. will present its basic thoughts soon. Unless there is any such proposal to change the plan, it is a matter of course for us, the organizing committee, to proceed with the Games as planned. ” Changes were already implemented, for instance, for the Olympic flame lighting ceremony on Thursday in Olympia, Greece.
The event, usually public, is set to take place without spectators after a recent increase in coronavirus cases in the area. Motoko Rich, Karen Crouse and Alan Blinder contributed reporting.
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