Lausanne, May 15 (IANS): The International Olympic Committee has announced that its next session -- initially scheduled for Tokyo before the opening of the 2020 Games -- will be held virtually and live streamed on July 17.
The decision was taken on Thursday as the IOC Executive Board (EB) also held its first-ever full remote meeting to respect the measures being implemented to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The IOC Executive Board have agreed today to have the 136th IOC Session virtually on Friday July 17," said IOC President Thomas Bach. Bach also said the IOC is willing to bear up costs of upto $800 million in the organisation of the postponed Tokyo Olympics.
The next remote EB meetings are scheduled for June 10, and July 15 and 22, with the last one to follow up on the results of the IOC Session.
The 2020 edition of the multi-national event was pushed back to 2021 in wake of COVID-19 crisis that has hit the entire world. Tokyo Olympics was supposed to be held in July-August this year but had to to postponed due to coronavirus pandemic which has so far claimed close to 3 lakh lives across the world.
The IOC has set the new dates as July 23 till August 8 next year.