It has been two months since the International Olympic Committee and officials in Japan agreed to postpone the 2020 Olympic Games for a year.
In that time, one thing has become clear: The Tokyo Games will happen in July and August of 2021 or they will not happen at all. A spokesman for the Tokyo Games said in April that there was no “B Plan.” Thomas Bach, the president of the I.O.C., reiterated that point this week: Either the Olympics open on July 23, with the Paralympics to follow on Aug. 24, or they will be canceled.
By necessity, nearly everything else is up in the air.
Fans or no fans? When and how will athletes continue the process of qualifying for the Games? Can they be kept healthy while they are in Tokyo? What will the Olympics look like given that the delay is costing organizers billions of dollars?
Though 14 months may sound like a long time to some, the timeline provides little comfort in Japan, where the coronavirus continues to upend daily life, or for the Olympic organizers tasked with pushing back competitions, thousands of hotel reservations and the finishing touches of venue construction during an unpredictable pandemic.
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If the Tokyo Games do happen, they will be even more costly. Estimates for the cost of the delay have ranged from $2 billion to $6 billion. The I.O.C. last week committed $650 million to help cover the costs, after a financial dispute in April between the organization and its partners in Japan.
After the announcement of the contribution, Mr. Muto declined to say whether the $650 million would be sufficient.
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