IOC Official Says No Deadline for Decision on Olympics

US actor Gerard Butler lights an altar as a torchbearer during the Olympic torch relay of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in the southern Greek town of Sparta on March 13, 2020. AP Photo

The leader of the IOC’s coordination commission for the Tokyo Olympics said there is no May deadline to cancel the games and he remains confident the event will go ahead despite sports coming to a virtual standstill globally amid the coronavirus outbreak.

John Coates, who will have to go into government-mandated self-isolation when he returns to Australia this week from Olympic business in Europe, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, “It’s all proceeding to start on the 24th of July.”