Tokyo 2020: Olympics will be ‘simplified’ in 2021

Tokyo 2020 will be a “simplified” Olympics, according to the chief executive of the organising committee.

The Games, scheduled to start in July, were postponed for a year in March because of fears over the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tokyo 2020 chief executive Toshiro Muto added that the Olympics will “not be done with grand splendour”.

Organisers said that they are working on more than 200 ideas to simplify and reduce costs for the rescheduled Games.

Muto, speaking at a news conference, also revealed that the organisers had not ruled out reducing the number of fans, although the competition schedule remained unchanged for now.

Meanwhile, Yoshiro Mori, the president of Tokyo 2020, refused to discuss the possibility of cancelling the Games altogether.

“It’s not right to discuss speculation based on a hypothetical scenario and therefore our direction is to not consider at all about cancellation,” he added.

In April, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said it may be “difficult” to stage the Games if the country does not successfully contain the virus. – bbc.com