News Information and Media Site: Sports: The Coronavirus and the Tokyo Olympics

February 27, 2020

The Coronavirus and the Tokyo Olympics

A pedestrian wearing a face mask to ward off disease on Wednesday walked past a countdown clock for the Tokyo Summer Olympics. Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

Olympic host cities are accustomed to planning for certain what-ifs: natural disasters, food poisoning, sexually transmitted diseases, inclement weather, terrorist attacks.

A global pandemic? That’s something else entirely.

With just under five months to go before the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, organizers are grappling with the coronavirus outbreak, which is threatening to derail the world’s largest sporting event, Andrew Keh and Ben Dooley write.

“I’m sure somewhere within the walls of the I.O.C. headquarters there’s a big board with various scenarios on it where people are thinking about, ‘OK, what do we do in a worst-case situation?” said Dick Pound, a longtime International Olympic Committee member.

None of those options are looking very good.

Read the full article here.

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