lausanne the international olympic committee ioc on tuesday gave further unequivocal backing to this summers tokyo olympics urging athletes to prepare full steam despite the coronavirus threatwe are preparing for a successful olympic games tokyo 2020 ioc head thomas bach said at an executive board meeting to discuss the july 24aug 9 sporting extravaganzaearlier on tuesday japans olympics minister seiko hashimoto had said that details within tokyos contract with the ioc could be interpreted as allowing a postponement until the end of the yearthat host city contract states that one of several triggers which would allow the ioc to withdraw the games from tokyo would be if the games are not celebrated during the year 2020hashimoto said however that japans government and tokyo were still committed to the games beginning on july 24 and the ioc has repeatedly swatted aside any suggestions of a postponementthe olympic body said again on tuesday there was no plan b and that the games would take place in their allotted time slotwreak havocany change to dates would instantly wreak havoc on most sports programmes with competition calendars planned several years ago to accommodate the tokyo timingsfinding a new date in 2020 at this stage which would first need the green light from the ioc would be extremely difficult if not impossible for the 33 sports federations present in tokyobach a 66yearold lawyer and former olympic fencing champion has an iron grip on ioc decisionmaking and is known for sticking to his guns in adversityi would like to encourage all the athletes to continue their preparation for the olympic games tokyo 2020 with great confidence and full steam the german told reporters in lausanne from our side we will continue to support the athletes and the national olympic committeesmultiple sports events around the world have been cancelled during the epidemic which has killed more than 3000 people in china and spread to more than 60 nations including japan where infections are near 1000 and 12 people have diedsmaller crowdscrowds will be smaller and receptions have been scrapped at the tokyo 2020 torchlighting ceremony in ancient olympia greece next week as the hellenic olympic committee hoc introduced measures to protect against the coronavirus it said on tuesdaydespite concerns over possible health risks to spectators and participants at the games the olympic body is unwilling to publicly discuss any other option such as cancellation or postponementno ioc spokesman mark adams said when asked if the olympic body had discussed possible options if the situation deterioratesthere is no international travel ban and all the advice that we are getting is that the games can and will go ahead adams said at this precise time we are expecting the games to begin on the 24th of julythe ioc board said a joint task force had been created two weeks ago involving the ioc the tokyo games organisers the city the government and the world health organisation to help deal with the coronavirus ahead of the olympicsthe ioc eb appreciates