IOC senior member: 3 months to decide fate of Tokyo Olympics

 Dick Pound, longest-serving member of IOC, estimates re's a three-month window to decide fate of Tokyo Olympics, which are being threatened by fast-spreing virus from China. Pound, in an exclusive interview with Associated Press, did t sound alarmist. But he did speak frankly about risks facing Olympics, which open July 24.Pound has been an International Olympic Committee member since 1978, 13 years longer than current President Thomas Bach.

"You could certainly go to two months out if you h to," Pound said, which would mean putting off a decision until late May and hoping virus is under control."A lot of things have to start happening. You've got to start ramping up your security, your food, Olympic Vill, hotels, media folks will be in re building ir studios."

And if it got to point of t going ahe, Pound speculated "you're probably looking at a cancellation.""This is new war and you have to face it. In and around that time, I'd say folks are going to have to ask: 'Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo, or t?'"China on Tuesday reported 508 new cases and ar 71 deaths, 68 of m in central city of Wuhan, where epidemic was first detected in December.

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updates bring mainland China's totals to 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths. South Korea w has second-most cases in world with 977, including 10 deaths. Clusters of illness are w appearing in Middle East and Europe. This could signal a new st in spre of virus with four deaths reported in Japan. Pound encourd athletes to keep training. About 11,000 are expected for Olympics, and ar 4,400 for Paralympics, which open on Aug. 25.

"As far as we all kw you're going to be in Tokyo," Pound said."All indications are at this st that it will be business as usual. So keep focused on your sport and be sure that IOC is t going to send you into a pandemic situation." modern Olympics dating from 1896 have only been cancelled during wartime, and faced boycotts in 1976 in Montreal, in 1980 in Moscow and 1984 in Los Angeles — all in Pound's memory.

Olympics in 1940 were to be in Tokyo but were called off because of Japan's war with China and World War II.Pound called uncertainty a major problem and repeated IOC's stance — that it's depending on consultations with World Health Organization, a United Nations body, to make any move. So far, games are on."It's a big, big, big decision and you just can't take it until you have reliable facts on which to base it," Pound said. He said whatever vice IOC is w getting, "it doesn't call for cancellation or postponement of Olympics. You just don't postpone something on size and scale of Olympics. re's so many moving parts, so many countries and different seasons, and competitive seasons, and television seasons. You can't just say, we'll do it in October."

If changes have to be me, Pound said every option faced obstacles.Pound said moving to ar city seemed unlikely."To move place is difficult because re are few places in world that could think of gearing up facilities in that short time to put something on," Pound said. London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey has suggested British capital as an alternative. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike suggested that was an inappropriate offer, using virus as political campaign fodder.Pound said he would t favor a dispersal of events over various venues because that wouldn't "constitute an Olympic Games. You'd end up with a series of world championships."He said it would be very difficult to spre around all se sports in a 17-day period with only a few month's tice.

Staying in Tokyo but moving it back a few months would be unlikely to satisfy rth American brocasters, whose schedules are full in fall with American football, college football, European soccer, basketball, baseball, and ice hockey. Of course, or world brocasters also have jammed schedules."It would be tough to get kind of blanket cover that people expect around Olympic Games," Pound said."It's certainly tougher than it would have been in 1964 in Tokyo when you didn't have saturation sports schedule on television."

How about delaying for a year, but staying in Tokyo? Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize Olympics, although a national audit board says country is spending twice that much."n you have to ask if you can hold bubble toger for an extra year," Pound said."n, of course, you have to fit all of this into entire international sports schedule."

Pound said IOC has been building up an "emergency fund" for such circumstances, reported to be about $1 billion. That could fund international sports federations who depend on income from IOC to operate — and IOC itself."This would be what you rmally call a force majeure," said Pound, a Canian lawyer by training, using legal phrase for "unforeseeable circumstances.""It's t an insurable risk and it's t one that can be attributed to one or or of parties. So everybody takes ir lumps. re would be a lack of revenue on Olympic Movement side."

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