How Coronavirus Could Change the 2020 Olympics

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2020

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has touched nearly every continent and industry since it broke out in China in December. Major sporting events have been canceled or rescheduled. Teams are playing matches to empty arenas, as officials aim to slow the spread of the disease. Japan is one of the leading countries infected, with big questions now swirling around the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. Could the Olympics be postponed, or even canceled? ESPN's Kelly Cohen walks us through what's known and what's not, from the International Olympic Committee and other sources. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	All the advice we're getting is that the games can and we'll go ahead.
0:05.7	So at this precise time, we are moving ahead and expecting the games to begin on the 24th of July.
0:14.4	The International Olympic Committee is pressing on with the Tokyo Summer Games, but with
0:19.8	coronavirus shutting down competitions across the world and teams playing to empty
0:24.9	arenas, a lot can happen between now and July.
0:28.9	Today, how the biggest sporting event on Earth is preparing to move forward as the world
0:34.5	battles a public health crisis.
0:38.2	I'm Inakimes.
0:40.2	It's Wednesday, March 4th.
0:44.1	This is ESPN Daily, presented by ADT. Hi, Kelly. Hi, Kelly.
0:58.1	Hi.
0:59.3	Kelly Cohen is a reporter for ESPN.
1:01.7	This week, she wrote about coronavirus and the preparations for the Tokyo Olympics.
1:06.4	So Kelly, the International Olympic Committee is holding meetings this week in Switzerland.
1:20.9	They're going to be covering a lot of issues. But obviously what everyone wants to know about is coronavirus and whether it'll impact the games. Well, what has the committee said?
1:28.3	Right. So actually, two people spoke from the committee. The president, Thomas Bach and Mark Adams, who's the spokesperson for the IOC,
1:33.4	and they said more or less the same thing. And I would say that they are very strong and resolute in their statements that July 24th, that is when the Olympic Games are opening.
1:41.3	All the advice we have at the moment is the games are going ahead from all of the competent
1:44.9	authorities. You can have all the speculation that you want and I would love to give you a good
1:50.0	story but the fact is there's no reason for us not to plan to have the games starting on the 24th
1:55.0	July. And then Thomas Bach he also spoke. He said more about the same. Following the regular information from this task force,
2:03.7	we remain very confident with regard to the success of these Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020.
	...

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