‘It will take place with or without Covid. The Games will start on July 23 next year’ SYDNEY: Tokyo’s postponed Olympics will go ahead next year regardless of the coronavirus pandemic, IOC vice president John Coates said Monday, calling them the “Games that conquered Covid.” The Olympics have never been canceled outside of the world wars and Coates, speaking in a phone interview, was adamant that the Tokyo Games will start on their revised date. “It will take place with or without Covid. The Games will start on July 23 next year,” said Coates, who heads the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission for the Tokyo Games.