Olympic chief roasted for ‘light at end of the tunnel’ line as flame arrives in Tokyo while calls mount for Games to be postponed

International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach has felt the burn after cringingly stating the Olympic flame could be the “light at the end of the tunnel” as it arrived in Japan ahead of the coronavirus-threatened Games.  

Calls are mouting for this summer’s Tokyo Games to be postponed as the Covid-19 outbreak rages on around the world.

The Games are due to get underway on July 24, with organizers thus far vowing they will go ahead as planned despite the viral pandemic which has infected more than 250,000 people worldwide and claimed over 10,000 lives.

Sporting calendars have been decimated by the virus as league around the world have been placed on hold and events cancelled.

Olympic chiefs have thus far remained defiant, urging athletes to take precautions as they prepare but thus far claiming it is too early to rule on whether the summer spectacular should be postponed or called off completely.

That has left officials open to accusations of chasing profit over principle – but as the Olympic flame officially arrived in Tokyo this week, IOC President Bach claimed it could serve as “light at the end of the tunnel” as the world tries to drag itselt out of the Covid-19 chaos.

IOC chief Bach is committed to the Games going ahead as planned. © Reuters

"While we do not know how long the tunnel we are all in at this moment will be, we would like the Olympic Flame to be a light at the end of this tunnel," read a message from Bach relayed by the Olympic Twitter account.

That cheesy line prompted some online eye-rolling, as Bach was branded “delusional” over the continuing belief that the Games would somehow be immune from cancelation.

In a sign of the times, the handover ceremony for the torch took place behind closed doors in Athens this week.

That followed the cancelation of the traditional torch relay in Greece over coronavirus fears after a crowd mobbed Hollywood star Gerard Butler at a cauldron-lighting ceremony in Sparta.  

Numerous athletes have been critical of Tokyo organizers’ stance on not postponing the Games.

Greek women’s pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi tweeting this week: “This is not about how things will be in 4 months. This is about how things are now.

“The IOC wants us to keep risking our health, our family’s health and public health to train every day? You are putting us in danger right now, today, not in 4 months.”

© Reuters

One Japanese minister even suggested recently that the Games were the victim of a “curse” which strikes the Games ever 40 years, dating back to World War II when they were due to be held in Tokyo but were canceled.

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The Summer Olympics in Moscow 40 years later were hit by a swathe of high-profile boycotts amid the Cold War and Soviet military involvement in Afghanistan.

This time around the flame of hope still burns for Bach and Co, but it may not be long before even that has been extinguished.