Host City Contract’ gives IOC much leeway to cancel Olympics

| March 11, 2020 | NATIONAL, NEWS | No Comments
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The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee’s Toshiro Muto, center left, and Yoshiro Mori, center right, listen to questions from the media during a news conference in Tokyo, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The Olympic Games are under threat from a spreading virus from China that has reached the pandemic stage. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

By STEPHEN WADE

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto suggested in Parliament this week that the Tokyo Games could be postponed by a few months from the planned July 24 opening and still meet a contract agreement with the International Olympic Committee.

It’s not that clear cut and seems unlikely.

The IOC has said repeatedly the Olympics will open as planned in just under five months despite a virus outbreak that started in China and has spread to at least 70 countries.