HONG KONG (Reuters) – The Chinese Olympic Committee is unlikely to follow the lead of its Canadian counterparts and withdraw from this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, a former senior official was quoted as saying on Monday, given opposition to the organization of the event increases.
The global outbreak of the coronavirus prompted the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Paralympic Committee (CPC) to call for the Games to be postponed. They said Team Canada would not be attending if the event went ahead this year.
But Wei Jizhong, former secretary-general of the Chinese Olympic Committee and vice president of the Asian Olympic Council, believes China will not back down publicly and will instead stick to the line of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“The Chinese Olympic Committee will follow the IOC,” Wei told the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. On Sunday, the IOC said there was a possibility of postponing the games by a year or more in a month-long consultation process.
“The IOC is facing a very difficult decision, which will cause problems in any case,” Wei said.
“The problem is that we should think of the athletes first. They’ve been preparing for these Olympics for at least four years, and if we postponed them by a year or two, most of these athletes would have lost their chance.
“There are other reasons, such as broadcasting rights and sponsors, but the IOC can set those aside for now.
“It’s about the athletes. Four years of hard work and a missed opportunity.”
Canada made its announcement on Sunday and Australia said on Monday that it expects to postpone the Olympics until next year.
Reporting by Michael Church, editing by Neil Fullick
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