IOC urged to make quick Olympic decision as US backs postponement

The International Olympic Committee came under pressure to speed up its decision about postponing the Tokyo Games on Tuesday as athletes criticised the four-week deadline and the United States joined calls to delay the competition.

After Canada and Australia withdrew their teams, with the world hunkering down for the coronavirus pandemic, the US Olympic committee said postponement was the best way forward.

A growing group of national Olympic committees and sports bodies including World Athletics have called for the Games, set to start on July 24, to be pushed back, an outcome that now appears inevitable.

IOC officials are studying a postponement, among other options, but still believe a decision would be "premature" four months from the scheduled start. They will make an announcement within four weeks.

"My interpretation of the IOC's communications is they don't want to cancel, and they don't think they can continue with the July 24 date," senior IOC official Dick Pound told AFP.

"So you're looking at the 'P' word -- postponement." IOC president Thomas Bach, Japanese leader Shinzo Abe, Tokyo's governor and the head of the organising committee will hold telephone talks later on Tuesday as the fate of the Games hangs in the balance.

The US Olympic team came out in favour of postponement after a survey of 1,780 US athletes found an overwhelming majority, 68 percent, backed delaying the Games.

The virus lockdown has shut down competition, including Olympic qualifiers, and made training not just difficult but also dangerous, as athletes risk contracting or spreading COVID-19.

- 'Unacceptable, irresponsible' -
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Meanwhile, British Olympic Association chairman Hugh Robertson told Sky Sports News: "If the virus continues as predicted by the government, I don't think there is any way we can send a team."
"This isn't the first time he has put his own motives above the athletes and the movement."
- 'Dither and delay' -
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"The IOC has said it will make a decision in four weeks," he told the Guardian. "It hasn't got that long. It probably has only got four days."