Olympics will go ahead even if Tokyo is in state of emergency, IOC chief says

John Coates (on screen) said the Tokyo Olympics would go ahead even if the city was in a state of emergency (Nicolas Datiche/Pool via AP)

The IOC vice president in charge of the postponed Tokyo Olympics has said the games would open in just over two months even if the city and other parts of Japan were under a state of emergency because of rising Covid-19 cases.

John Coates, speaking from Australia on Friday in a virtual news conference with Tokyo organisers at the end of three days of meetings, said this would be the case even if local medical experts advised against holding the Olympics.