Tokyo Olympics could take place without vaccine—IOC chief

A lantern containing the Olympic flame is seen during an event to mark one year until the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games at the National Stadium in Tokyo on July 23, 2020. (Photo by Du Xiaoyi / POOL / AFP)

Olympic boss Thomas Bach said Thursday that the Tokyo Games could take place next year even without a coronavirus vaccine, pointing to the success of the Tour de France.

Striking an optimistic note at a meeting with Tokyo 2020 organizers, he vowed to make the postponed event a triumph despite the uncertainties of the pandemic.

“We can see that sport is coming back slowly but surely, and that a number of big sport events have been successfully organized recently, including matches in different Japanese leagues,” he said via videolink.

“Also very complex events like the Tour de France and others, which showed to us and showed to the world that we can organize safe sport events even without a vaccine.”

But a vaccine and progress in rapid testing “would of course greatly facilitate” holding the event, said Bach, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The 2020 Games were postponed earlier this year as the deadly new illness spread around the globe.

They are now set to open on July 23, 2021, and organizers are insisting they will go ahead in some form — and be safe for all involved.

Drugs companies are racing to produce an effective jab to counter a virus that has now killed more than 970,000 people around the world and infected almost 32 million.

Several leading vaccine candidates are currently in late-stage trials.

Bach said it was impossible to make a contingency plan for every scenario, and said organizers would not be pressured into making premature announcements on how the Games would take place.

“We have to work diligently and we have to work comprehensively, and then at the appropriate time take the right decisions,” he said.

“I’m sure that we will make… these Olympic Games, which will be historic in different respects, we will make it a success, and we will make it a success together,” he said.