The Tokyo 2020 Olympics could turn out to be a resounding success or an abject failure. Sadly for sport, the parameter would not be world records or medals won — it would be whether the quadrennial event becomes a Covid-19 superspreader. The signs are ominous: Japan, in the midst of a rising wave of the pandemic, had nearly 5,000 new cases on Wednesday, a sharp rise from an average of 1,428 a month ago. On Thursday, the Olympics organising committee reported 12 new cases related to the event, two of them involving foreign athletes at the athletes’ village. Japan, strangely for a rich nation, is a laggard in the vaccination process: Only around 23 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.

Going ahead with the Games, then, seems nothing less than madness — the biggest show on the planet will have over 11,500 athletes and 79,000 officials, support staff, media and the sundry. The fear is real that the 32nd Summer Olympics might turn out to be the biggest ever Covid superspreader. Public opinion is strongly against organising the Games. A recent poll showed 87 per cent people were worried about holding the event. The organisers suggest that public opinion is of little concern to the International Olympic Committee, a ruthlessly commercial organisation that is known to put profit over all else.

What about the athletes? They want to play on — those who missed Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 due to political boycotts still lament the lost opportunities. Some would be in action for just a day, but they’ve prepared for and dreamt of that one day for years. Tokyo might be an event that should not have happened, but now that the games are going to begin, it is hoped that extraordinary sporting feats will bring some cheer to the world. But those fortunate ones whom Covid-19 passed by without hurting must remember — medals won would be scant solace to the millions who have lost their loved ones to the virus or were pushed deeper into poverty by it.