‘We must plan it will take place'

Putting back an Olympics by a year is a staggeringly huge undertaking. Lucy Higginson finds out what’s involved

- Lucy Higginson

JUST how hard is it to postpone Tokyo’s Olympics by a year? By this stage of the annus horribilis that is 2020, almost everyone has had to cancel or reschedule something sizeable. Be it a party, holiday, wedding or reunion, we’ve had to balance personal disappointment against the greater crisis, and spend hours unpicking plans, chasing up deposits, cancelling flights and more.

Spare a thought then for the Tokyo Olympic Organising committee (TOKOG) who have had to postpone 2020’s biggest party of all, involving 41 different venues, 11,000 athletes and an anticipated 600,000 visitors from around the world.

Toshiro Muto, TOKOG chief executive, explained to the media that numerous Olympic venues had already been booked for other purposes next year, producing scheduling conflicts that have had to be resolved. For other venues, it’s been a more straightforward question of extending leases.

“Our plan was to return all of the Games venues once we had finished,” Muto explained as the postponement was announced. “So to hire them again means we have to pay additional costs for them and we might have to hire people until next year.”

Chief among the facilities affected was the Athletes’ Village, built overlooking Tokyo Bay, and our riders’ base through the Games. As at other Olympics including Barcelona and London, this is to be converted into luxury apartments afterwards, and some 900 of them have already been sold to new owners who had expected to move in by next summer.