Reaction to Canada and Australia's withdrawal from 2020 Tokyo Games

Reaction to Canada and Australia's withdrawal from 2020 Tokyo Games due to the coronavirus.

The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Paralympic Committee (CPC) said: "The COC and CPC urgently call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the Games for one year and we offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring."

The Australian Olympic Committee said: "The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) says Australian athletes should prepare for a Tokyo Olympic Games in the northern summer of 2021, following the IOC’s announcement of a potential postponement of this year’s Games and changes in public health landscape in Australia and across the globe."

Paralympics Australia said: "Paralympics Australia is wholly supportive of a postponement of the Paralympic Games in the best interests of public health, both here and abroad. It is hard to see another option."

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said if holding the Games in their "complete form" became impossible, "we may have no option but to consider postponing the Games, given the Olympic principle of putting the health of athletes first".

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) said: "We view as unacceptable any attempts to bring pressure on the organizations in charge responsible of staging the Games and to force them to take rash decisions.

"Panic is the worst what can happen in the current situation. The ROC urges all the representatives of the sports community to keep Olympic calm, to act systematically and constructively while preparing for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, to make every effort to come out (with) a consensus on issues that are of concern to all of us in the contest of the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics."

Hellenic Olympic Committee president Spyros Capralos told Reuters: "The IOC needs to take a quick decision on the matter. I understand where the athletes are coming from. I was a former athlete (water polo).

"When you cannot train you are stressed, you live in agony which is disastrous. Postponement is inevitable because things change so quickly every day. No one wants cancellation but I don't see how the Games could be held in July.

"The faster the decision the better it is for the entire Olympic movement."

Norwegian Olympics Committee President Berit Kjoell said: "My clear advice to the board (of the Norwegian Olympics committee) is that you should ask not to send any athletes to the Paralympics or Olympics in Tokyo 2020 in light of the serious situation."

British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Hugh Robertson said: "If the virus continues as predicted by the government... I don't think there's any way that we could send a team ... I suspect that we'll be joining Canada and Australia shortly."

The Portuguese Olympic Committee said the IOC's request to athletes to continue preparing "puts great pressure on athletes at a moment when general guidelines from global health authorities insists on the importance of people staying at home ... We should not put the health of the athletes at risk in this battle we should be fighting together."

Morten Molholm Hansen, director of Denmark's sports confederation, told local broadcaster DR: "To gather more than 200 nations one place in Tokyo already in four months at a time where we don't know if the coronavirus has been knocked down is way too risky."

French Olympic Committee president Denis Masseglia said: "The moment the IOC indicates that it is thinking about other solutions, it has already decided to delay the game ... The IOC has come under a lot of criticism, although it has never said it wanted to maintain the Games at any cost."

The Spanish Olympic Committee said: "We have always said that the Tokyo 2020 Games should be held in equal conditions for everyone, something which is not possible in the current situation."

"We hope that, in the interests of the athletes, the definitive date of the Games is declared as soon as possible."

Christopher Samuda, president of the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA), said: "Should it become clear that the country's athletes would be at risk of being exposed to the deadly virus then the JOA would have no other option than to act in their best interest."

"If we do not get the opinions of the experts that it (the virus outbreak) is being managed and that the risk has been minimized, we must take a decision in the interest of our athletes and then say we will not be participating."

The Austrian Olympics Committee's president, Karl Stoss, and its secretary general, Peter Mennel, said: "We... encourage our athletes to continue their training and prepare for the summer season as normally as possible."

"It makes perfect sense to play through all conceivable scenarios instead of rushing to cancel the summer season. This is not helping anyone."

Poland's Olympic Committee said: "The Polish Olympic Committee calls on the International Olympic Committee to change the date and as soon as possible to decide on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games."

The Dutch Olympic Committee said: "We will not send any athletes if their health is not guaranteed. For this we will take binding advice from the World Health Organization, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Until there is more clarity we will work with two scenarios, in which we will minimize the preparations for the scenario in which Tokyo 2020 is held this summer."

The acting chief executive of the South African sports confederation and Olympic committee (SASCOC), Ravi Govender, told Reuters: "We don't think that cancelling the Olympics should be the first point of call. It can be postponed to a safer time, it can be postponed to a time when the world has taken charge of this virus or completely destroyed it."

Swimming's world governing body FINA said: "Following the IOC's decision to further consider the impacts of COVID-19 on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, FINA has offered its full support for this process on the basis that public health and wellbeing must be our global priority at this unprecedented time."

The Egyptian Olympic Committee's president, Hisham Hatab, told Reuters: "We're ready for all possibilities, we're preparing for participation as if the Olympics will be held tomorrow."

"At the same time, we, like the rest of the national Olympic Committees all over the world, await the situation and then take a decision. If the Olympics is postponed for a month or two or more, then we are always ready to participate."

Five-time Olympian Hayley Wickenheiser, who was an early critic of IOC's plan to press ahead with the Tokyo Games, said: "Very proud of (Canadian flag) this evening."

Canadian world champion swimmer Maggie MacNeil, who is hoping to make her Olympic debut in Tokyo, said: "Sometimes you just need a good hug... I know that it is in the best interest of the athletes and society. The right choice was made, but it doesn't make it any easier."

Canadian hurdler Sage Watson, the reigning Pan American champion in the 400 metres hurdles, said: "I believe in the safety of our lives but this is premature."

Canadian boxer Mandy Bujold, a two-time Pan American Games champion, said on Twitter: "Staying healthy right now is the No. 1 priority for everyone. I will continue to do the training that I can and do my part in keeping my community and family safe."

Former U.S. Olympian Lolo Jones said: "YESSSSSS CANADA!!!!!!! pulls out of OLYMPICS UNLESS IOC POSTPONE!!! OUR HEALTH IS MORE important than sport. Hopefully the UNITED STATES is next."

British Olympic and world champion swimmer Adam Peaty said: "So the Canadians have pulled out of the Olympics and the Australians said they won’t travel if the Olympics are held this summer, @WorldAthletics have also put pressure on IOC to move. Let’s hope @fina1908 do the right thing in the next few days, not weeks."

British cycling Olympic champion Callum Skinner, who fronts competitor-led movement Global Athlete, said: "IOC President Thomas Bach's stubbornness and arrogance has spectacularly failed in this instance and he has weakened the Olympic movement.

"This isn't the first time he has put his own motives above the athletes and the movement."