Bach comes to Tokyo as cheerleader for next year's Olympics

TOKYO, Nov 16 (AP): The IOC and Tokyo Olympic organizers have been shouting the message for months now, that despite the continuing pandemic, the Games will open on July 23, 2021.

The volume will be turned up louder on Monday and Tuesday. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach will be in Tokyo making the rounds, shaking hands and posing for photos in his first visit since the Olympics were postponed 7 1/2 months ago.

Bach will make his point to supportive politicians, and to a skeptical public distracted by the pandemic and ambivalent about the Games. And worried about jobs and the economy. He is unlikely to give many new details in public, but he has said repeatedly that the IOC is planning many scenarios to get 11,000 athletes into Tokyo, and some fans, too. The Paralympics will draw 4,350 more athletes. Bach has spoken with increasing confidence that a vaccine will be available, and also rapid testing.

He's said both would make the Olympics easier to deliver, as well as holding stalled qualifying events.

"I think we can become more and more confident that we will have a reasonable amount of spectators," Bach said last week at the IOC's headquarters in Switzerland. Fans from abroad are also possible, though numbers and protocols are unclear. Bach was also asked last week whether he was going to Tokyo to talk about contingencies for canceling the Olympics. "No," he replied.

Bach is travelling on a private charter and will meet new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Monday morning. A few hours later he will give former prime minister Shinzo Abe an Olympic award.

An hour later he's with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, and then holds a media conference with Tokyo organizing committee President Yoshiro Mori, another former prime minister. Several of the events will be on-line, but others are open to media attending in person.