Empathy, yes, but Tokyo pulling off its Games in a pandemic this summer would create more certainty that Beijing's 2022 Winter Games will go ahead six months later.
"It is like a test event for our Olympics," Kripps said. "You can really confidently go into the Beijing Games if you had the Tokyo Games executed, and hopefully everything goes really well."
Beijing's Winter Olympics open exactly one year from Thursday, Feb. 4, 2022, followed by the Paralympic Winter Games a month later.
Beijing has more time for the world to tame the virus, or to adopt Tokyo's adaptations if it can't.
"I just hope for a normal Olympic Games," said two-time Olympic moguls champion Mikael Kingsbury of Deux-Montagnes, Que.