Overseas fans will be banned from this summer’s virus-delayed Tokyo Olympics, organisers said Saturday, calling the decision disappointing but “unavoidable” as they try to hold the Games safely during the pandemic.

The unprecedented ban will make the Tokyo Games the first ever without overseas spectators, with organisers scaling back their ambitions for the pandemic event.

Once billed as a party to celebrate “proof of humanity’s triumph over the virus”, the Games are instead shaping up to be a largely television event, with little of the international party atmosphere that usually characterises an Olympics.

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