Deciding to Postpone the Olympics Was Tough. Actually Moving Them May Be Tougher

Faced with this fresh challenge, international sports federations were sent scrambling on Tuesday to figure out how to shift qualification processes that were already halfway done. About 57 percent of athletes had qualified for the Games already, and questions swirled about whether their spots would remain secure for 2021, and what the new qualification parameters might look like across dozens of sports.

Athletes around the world began deciding whether the 2021 Games still fit into their life plans. And organizers in Japan began pondering which logistical plans could stay intact for another year.

“There is not a book you can go to now and say, ‘OK, here’s Plan B,’” said Terrence Burns, a longtime Olympic bid consultant. “Right now there is a blank piece of paper.”

Burns said Japan was lucky that its Games were essentially ready to go and that many components of the event — transportation, security, housing, and others — were already in place to some extent.

“They have all the ingredients for the cake in the pan; they just have to wait another year to put it in the oven,” said Burns, who also noted that the organizers were lucky to have found sponsors and to have raised funds already.

Yet while the postponement helps to save Japan’s investment, it could still incur some significant costs. Muto said, for instance, that many of the venues that had been leased for this year would have to be extended for another year.

“Our plan was to return all of the Games venues once we had finished,” Muto said. “So to hire them again means we have to pay additional costs for them and we might have to hire people until next year.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/sports/olympics/coronavirus-olympics-postponement.html