Tokyo 2020: Japan and IOC can spin Olympics negative into positive – it just needs vision

Whenever the IOC holds the Games in 2021 there will be massive conflicts, but these are the Olympics so everyone fall into line

The reboot will require the type of introspective and progressive thinking that neither the IOC nor Japan has exhibited lately

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A couple take a selfie with the giant Olympic rings monument in the background at Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo. Photo: EPA

Tim Noonan

Tim Noonan has been crafting uniquely provocative columns for the SCMP and SMP for more than a decade.

Published: 12:05pm, 28 Mar 2020Updated: 10:01pm, 28 Mar 2020

We all know about the litany of miscues and compromised agendas at the highest levels of governance that have greatly contributed to the world being on the brink of disaster. It’s an indisputable truth and here is one more: yesterday is just that, it’s done. The blame game is not moving us forward. We need a vision, we need some hope and no country has a better chance, and more of a need, than Japan.

Japanese and International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials finally came to their senses this week and postponed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It was more a relief than a revelation. Amid a global pandemic, the Tokyo Organising Committee and the IOC stubbornly held to their belief that athletes from 206 countries and states would merrily waltz into Japan's National Stadium on July 24 for the opening of the Summer Games.

Frankly, their consternation was a distraction and like most of the virus recovery efforts globally, it was on the micro not the macro level where pivotal decisions were being forced. Once Canada and Australia announced they would not send a team because of the health risks posed by Covid-19, it put an official exclamation mark on the growing choir of dissent from international sporting bodies.

Japanese and IOC officials had no choice – the decision was made for them, not by them. In four weeks they will announce a date and a plan to, hopefully, proceed next year. But for now, they can both get lost. The planet is dealing with some dire and deadly serious issues; we don’t need them in the way. Huddle up and do your thing.