Tokyo 2020: 'Safe and secure' Olympics will take place - IOC president Thomas Bach
Last updated on .From the section Olympics
A "safe and secure" Tokyo Olympics will happen this year, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach says.
The German said it was no longer a question of whether the Games would take place this summer but how they would be held.
The Olympics were postponed last summer as the coronavirus pandemic spread.
"At this moment we have no reason to doubt that the opening ceremony will take place on 23 July," Bach said.
"The question is not whether, the question is how these Olympic Games will take place.
"The IOC is working at full speed together with our Japanese partners and friends to make the postponed Olympic Games a safe manifestation of peace, solidarity and resilience of humankind in overcoming the pandemic.
"Our shared top priority was, is and remains a safe and secure Olympic Games for everyone."
World Athletics president Lord Coe said earlier this year that the Games may have to take place behind closed doors, while in January the former chief executive of the London 2012 Olympics said it was "unlikely" that the Tokyo Games would take place this summer.
The local Japanese organisers are due to announce by the end of March whether foreign spectators will be allowed to attend the Games.
Bach was speaking after being re-elected president of the IOC on Wednesday.
