Early signs suggest summer dates for 2021 Olympics

Tokyo: Tokyo Olympic organizers seem to be leaning away from starting the rescheduled games in the spring of 2021. More and more the signs point toward the summer of 2021.

Organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori suggested there would be no major change from 2020.

"The Games are meant to be in summer, so we should be thinking of a time between June and September,'' Japanese news agency Kyodo reported Mori saying on Saturday.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, after the postponement was announced in Switzerland on Tuesday, left open the possibility of spring dates.

The postponed Games were to have opened on July 24 and closed on Aug. 9. Mori suggested some decisions could be made as early as this week when the organizing committee's executive board meets.

Any final decision will be made between local organizers and the IOC, and hundreds of sponsors, sports federations and broadcasters.

Athletes have been left in limbo by the postponement. Many have been forced to stop training because of the spreading coronavirus virus. Even those who can train have no idea about how to schedule training to reach peak fitness at the right time.