--- title: "The Tokyo Olympics May Be Canceled Due to Coronavirus Outbreak" description: "According to a high-ranking organizer, it's possible the Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be canceled due to the international coronavirus outbreak." date: "2020-02-26" modified: "2020-02-26" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/tokyo-olympics-cancelled-coronavirus-outbreak" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" - "Medical" - "Pathogens" - "Viruses" tags: - "coronavirus" - "covid-19" - "health" - "Olympics" --- # The Tokyo Olympics May Be Canceled Due to Coronavirus Outbreak ![According to a high-ranking organizer, it's possible the Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be canceled due to the international coronavirus outbreak.]() *\Image: 2020 Summer Olympics/Victor Tangermann\* It's possible the Summer Olympics in Tokyo will be canceled due to the international coronavirus outbreak, according to a high-ranking organizer of the event. It goes without saying, but the Olympic cancellation, were it to happen, would be one of historic proportions. If the Olympic committee determines that it wouldn't be safe to hold the massive event, "you’re probably looking at a cancellation," said senior International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound, [the *Associated Press* reports](). "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 not?’" Cancelling the games would be an extraordinary logistical debacle. Japan is officially spending about $12.6 billion on the events, according to the *AP,* but one estimate holds that it's spending twice that amount. And that's without mentioning the impact on the untold millions of people planning to attend, watch, commoditize, and even participate in the games. Underscoring how drastic it would be to skip the games, according to the *AP*, the modern Olympics have only ever been cancelled on three occasions, all during the two world wars*.* There is precedent, though, for hand-wringing about whether to cancel an upcoming Olympics for health reasons. In 2016, for instance, [some called]() for canceling the games in Rio de Janeiro because of the then-current Zika virus outbreak. Long story short: If things get bad enough, officials will have no choice but to nix the show. "If it gets to be something like the Spanish flu," Pound told the *AP*, referring to the deadly pandemic early in the 20th century that killed millions, "at that level of lethality, then everybody’s got to take their medicine." ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()