Olympics Games could go ahead behind closed doors with NO fans in Tokyo amid coronavirus crisis
A top British Cycling chief says it’s possible the Olympics will go ahead behind closed doors following the Coronavirus outbreak.
According to the World Health Organisation, six people have died in Japan from COVID-19.
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There have been more than 230 confirmed cases so far, excluding the 705 passengers and crew members who fell ill on the docked Diamond Princess cruise liner last month.
Authorities have taken extensive steps to halt the spread of the outbreak, shutting schools for several weeks and postponing 94 football fixtures in the country until mid-March.
The Tokyo marathon took place on Sunday but there was no mass race and streets were empty with fans discouraged from lining the 26.2-mile course.
The Olympics are set to start on July 24 and the IOC are “fully committed” to holding the Games on schedule.
However, if the situation continues to escalate over the next few months then one option would be to stop spectators coming into the sporting arena.
Track cycling is being held about two hours away from Tokyo city at the 4,300-capacity Izu Velodrome.
British Cycling national performance director Stephen Park said: “You’d struggle to find a day when the Olympics didn’t take part for any reason.
“Will it mean that they might be different? Possibly.
You’d struggle to find a day when the Olympics didn’t take part for any reason. Will it mean that they might be different? Possibly.
British Cycling national performance director
“Look at the World Cup skiing in two weeks’ time in Cortina. They are doing it on a closed circuit with no fans, and that’s going to an area that doesn’t currently have any infections.
“So might there be some of those things that happen (in Tokyo)? Possibly.
“Equally we are not worried about them.
“We will get on and prepare as if they are going to happen. That’s all we can do.”
Training facilities for the GB riders are in the process of being upgraded at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester – but that was organised long before the outbreak became public knowledge.
Park claims everyone is aware of the hygiene methods and anybody who is sick will be prevented from mixing with the star riders.
The Scot said: “The first thing we can do is not to panic.
“We’ve already started doing simple things like clearing out the changing rooms of all the kit that’s left, the towels, shoes or whatever. It all gets cleaned out.
“That’s highly unlikely to have any impact on health but we are not taking any risks.
“Everyone here has been issued with their own hand gels.
“We make sure when people have little sniffles they isolate but at this stage of the Games that’s what we would be doing anyway.
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“It might be that we have someone in IT who not feeling well. We will say you’re not working here. You can do that somewhere else.
“But to be honest that’s what we’ve been doing at this stage of the cycle anyway across British sport, we’ve been very good at that.
“We stepped it up ahead of Rio as a result of the Zika virus scare and most of that has been maintained. So don’t panic, control the controllables.”