At the moment the IOC and Japan are at a stalemate because neither want to be responsible for paying for the result of a cancellation.
Canada stepping up to the plate is important because hopefully it encourages other countries to follow suit.
Nobody in their right mind should even be remotely considering holding a major global event this year.
It is a long and convoluted story. 1964 Tokyo Olympics - organized by Abe's grandfather - then Japan PM (yes, Japan is democracy but political establishment is hereditary) - are seen as a start of Japan's economic miracle.
https://www.ft.com/content/d6142984-194b-11e3-83b9-00144feab...
https://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2013/09/05/the-1964-toky...
It is already a fantasy when the virus outbreak outside China like late Feb.
It would be pretty important if we could pull this off.
Part I suspect is the money in winning and how some countries won't be at 100% vs let's prove as humans we can achieve something as a global community in a crisis.
There can't be in person spectators and there will be isolations either side.
But we can do it.
We can achieve something. Just not this.
Olympic games are 20% for sport and 80% for the money brought by spectators/tourists. The host country spends billions in local infrastructures (stadiums, hotels, roads, &c.) it would make no sense to have the competitions without in person spectators.
Australia is distancing itself as well. I don't expect it will take long before others join in.
Can't see many countries risking their top athletes right now, anyway.
Even the opening ceremony would be a massive risk according to what's currently known.
A lot can happen in 4 weeks, but the changes that need to take place in time for the Olympics (Vaccine? Effective treatment? Scalable testing and containment?) appear to be a long way off.
And what happens if the IOC end up needing to ban certain countries still fighting the issue?
