Jared Tallent spoke with The Courier on Sunday and joined the chorus of those calling for the postponement of the event, which is scheduled to start on July 24.

"There's a growing view from a lot of athletes and sporting federations that it shouldn't go ahead. There's much more pressing issues in the world right now," Tallent said.

"And it's a little bit irresponsible by the IOC in the way (they're) pushing ahead. And it sounds like they're not even considering change at the minute.

"I just can't see how the Olympics can go ahead with the world the way it is."

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Tallent said with so many varying conditions on athletes around the world, the lead-up to the Games was unfair.

"The athletes around the world have no access to competitions or even in some places they can't even train, they can't even leave their home," he said.

"You've got to look at fairness..."

In a statement on its website on March 17, the IOC declared it remained "fully committed" to the 2020 Games.

"...with more than four months to go before the Games there is no need for any drastic decisions at this stage; and any speculation at this moment would be counter-productive," it read.

Tallent, an Olympic gold medalist who has competed in the past three Games, said he currently hadn't qualified for Tokyo and obviously wouldn't be travelling to a qualifying event scheduled on April 12 in Japan.

Tallent's comments come after those from respected sports administrator and event organiser Brian Roe in a column for Tasmanian newspaper The Examiner on Saturday.

"The IOC should be making the call now to postpone the Tokyo Olympics," he wrote. "Because of the staged manner in which COVID-19 is impacting the globe, it's just unreasonable to think that even in that four-month span that the IOC relies on as its decision-making buffer, things will be fine and dandy across the world come late-July."

READ ROE'S COLUMN: Simply not fair - why the Tokyo Olympics can't go ahead