However, the athletes preparing for the Games must be given clarity. The minimum Bach should have done was offer a deadline for a decision – despite detached IOC members thinking there is no decision to be made. Instead, he fuelled the uncertainty. With qualifying events falling by the wayside, more than half of the athletes’ quota for the Games remains unfulfilled. There is an air of inevitability that these Games are doomed.

There may, however, be a way to save Tokyo 2020 while upholding Japanese pride, but it requires a major shift in perception – of what quantifies an Olympic Games and how it is served up. It also needs every government, sporting body and athlete around the world to come together like never before. And it would most definitely involve a postponement.

The 2021 World Swimming Championships start in Fukuoka, Japan, on July 16 and end on August 1. They are quickly followed by the World Athletics Championships, scheduled for August 6-15 in Eugene, Oregon, in the United States.

In solidarity to Tokyo 2020, Eugene and Fukuoka can give up their hosting rights and move the events to Tokyo. It would no longer be world championships but part of a vastly elongated Olympic Games schedule – one that starts on July 24 and goes on until all 33 sports have completed their disciplines.

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, is to host cycling’s World Track Championships in February, 2021. Move the event to Tokyo. Next year’s World Artistic Gymnastics World Championships is to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Move it to Tokyo and, like the others, rebrand it as an official Tokyo 2020 Olympic competition.

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In fact, most of the 2020 Olympic sports will stage a world championships in 2021. Those that don’t can sacrifice one of their major competitions or create a space in their calendar for an Olympic event. The latter months of 2020 – assuming the Covid-19 crisis is under control – can be used to complete Olympic qualifying events.

Tokyo can enjoy a year-long Olympic festival in 2021. All medals will count towards the official tally, the stadiums and arenas built to host the Olympics will still fulfil their purpose and the IOC will largely meet its commercial obligations.

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Go ahead and ignite the Olympic flame on July 24, behind closed doors even. But keep the fire burning throughout the rest of 2020 and most of 2021.

It’s far from perfect. Many athletes who trained to peak in July and August this year may struggle to maintain fitness and stamina, especially those on the verge of retiring. It’s not a win-win solution but these are not win-win times. The world must share in the losses.

The Covid-19 crisis is no longer a problem for another country on the other side of the world. It is now omnipresent and many stand to lose more than a mere place in the Olympics as an invisible micro-speck brings humanity to its knees. Few are unaffected.

Veteran Hong Kong rowing coach Chris Perry backs the concept, though he imagines a “World Olympics”. “A similar idea had crossed my mind,” Perry said. “Although I also wondered if it might even be turned into an Olympic Games hosted by the world instead of only Tokyo. Events run worldwide at optimal locations and time to share the financial burden, but all counting towards a global Olympics.”

Bach said the IOC was discussing a variety of solutions but, for now, none of these involved postponing the Games. Tokyo has a contract with the IOC to deliver the Games in 2020. Given the extreme circumstances, surely that can be waived. A year-long Olympics in 2021 would still come under Tokyo 2020 branding.

Even if visions of an extended Tokyo 2020 Olympics are folly, it is perilous to dismiss the reality of the moment. The IOC cannot ignore the chaos around them. The Japanese government may be succeeding in containing the spread of Covid-19 but dozens of countries are still being ravaged.

A number of sporting bodies and even athletes are rightly starting to give the Olympics diminished importance amid a global pandemic that has cost more than 13,000 lives. There appears to be no way out for the IOC. They owe it to the dedicated sportsmen and women to acknowledge the fact that there is a catastrophe beyond the walls of their Lausanne headquarters and offer tangible closure.