Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis wants Tokyo Olympics to be held in 2022

NEW YORK: Nine-times Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis on Sunday called for the 2020 athletics season to be scrapped and July’s Tokyo Games to be postponed until 2022 because of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed thousands.

“Let’s wipe the season clean, focus on the (2021) worlds and get it together,” America’s most decorated track and field athlete told Reuters in a telephone interview.

With the uncertainty now of whether there will be a Games in 2020 and the tightening of people’s movement by governments to try to control the virus, “we are in the twilight zone,” Carl Lewis said.

“I don’t think the Olympics are going to happen, but, we have to prepare as we are going.”

While many say the Tokyo Olympics should be postponed for a year and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Sunday it is studying that possibility, Lewis said the reasonable thing to do would be delay the Games until 2022.

“We could move it two years and have both (the Summer and Winter) Olympics the same year, like it used to be,” he said.

“That would give us (athletics) a championship meet every year for the next four years. We would have two world championships (in 2021 and 2023) between an Olympics (in 2022),” with the Paris Olympics in 2024, he added.

It would also not conflict with the 2022 soccer World Cup which is scheduled for November and December in Qatar. Agencies

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