Thinley Namgay
The Tokyo Olympic would be held as per the plan of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), according to the Bhutan Olympic Committee (BOC).
BOC members claimed there was no news of cancelling the Olympic.
IOC president, Thomas Bach, had a video conference with the BOC on January 23 regarding the Tokyo Olympic.
BOC’s programme officer, Jamyang Namgyal, said the IOC president informed them the Olympic would go ahead as planned from July 23 to August 10.
“Last year, IOC used to tell us that Olympic would not be held without spectators, but now with the new variant of the virus and rising Covid-19 cases in Japan, they might consider it behind closed doors,” he said.
He said IOC already had a plan to roll out vaccination for the athletes and officials. “IOC president said that they would not resort only to vaccination. They are discussing other preventive measures.”
The IOC also issued a statement on January 22 on rumours of Olympic games being cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Some news reports circulating are claiming that the Japanese government has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics will have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus. This is categorically untrue,” IOC stated.
On January 21, the London based daily national newspaper, ‘the times’ mentioned that the Japanese government has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics would have to be cancelled because of the coronavirus.
“According to a senior member of the ruling coalition, there is an agreement that the games, already postponed a year, are doomed. The aim now is to find a face-saving way of announcing the cancellation that leaves open the possibility of Tokyo playing host at a later date,” the times mentioned.
At an IOC executive board meeting in July last year, it was agreed that the opening ceremony of the Olympic games Tokyo 2020 would be held in July this year.
“The programmes and the venues for the games were rescheduled accordingly. All parties involved are working together to prepare for a successful game this summer,” IOC stated.
IOC also mentioned that they would be implementing all possible countermeasures against Covid-19 and would continue to work closely with the Tokyo 2020 organising committee and the Tokyo metropolitan government for holding safe and secure games this summer.
“Together with its Japanese partners and friends, the IOC is fully concentrated on and committed to the successful delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020 this year,” IOC stated.
Tokyo Olympic was supposed to take place in July last year but was postponed to July this year due to the pandemic. This decision came after IOC President Thomas Bach and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met on March 24, last year.
It was also agreed that the games would keep the name ‘Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020’.
The first Olympic Games were held in 1896 at Athens, Greece from April 6 to 15. Bhutan became a member of the IOC in 1983. Bhutan’s debut in the Olympic Games dates back to the Los Angeles Olympics in the United States of America in 1984.
Meanwhile, a female archer with the Bhutan Archery Federation, Karma, booked the spot in the recurve women’s archery at the Tokyo Olympic during the Asian continental qualification tournament held at Bangkok in November 2019.
Jamyang Namgyal, however, said that Karma still had to acquire the minimum qualifying score (MQS) of 605 points despite qualifying for the Olympic quota. “In May, there is an archery tournament at Bangkok, and she will participate there to ensure that she maintains required MQS for the Tokyo Olympic.”