The postponed Tokyo Olympic Games will create new “stars and legends” despite a one-year delay, fragmented preparations and the absence of fans in the stadiums, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said on Wednesday.
“These Games will have high sporting value under the circumstances,” Bach told an online media roundtable. “We have seen how the athletes persevered and adapted over more than one year...
“This challenge was the same for all of them. There we will nevertheless see great sport and like in any Olympics new stars will be born there, and new legends will be created.”
Bach, who had a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and Tokyo 2020 president Hashimoto Seikoto to discuss preparations, said he supported the strict measures imposed on the Games and its participants as it was necessary to help persuade the Japanese population that the Games would not become a super-spreader event.
“We are trying to address the concerns,” he said. “We always knew there was scepticism among the population and that there are very special circumstances about which the population is concerned and which transferred to the Olympic Games.”
