- 'Never happened' -Whatever they decide, there's no doubt that barring overseas fans will help make the Games a very different event from years past."It has never happened that foreign spectators were banned from entering the host country at the time of the Games, even during the Spanish flu at the time of the Antwerp 1920 Olympic Games," said Jean-Loup Chappelet, a Lausanne-based professor who specialises in the Olympics."Even for Athens 1896, the Cook agency organised 'packages' for those who wanted to attend the first modern Games."When the Games were postponed last year, organisers and Japanese officials had hoped that the pandemic would be receding by spring 2021.They proclaimed the event would mark the light at the end of the.