Having been told by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach this week that the 32nd Olympiad would proceed, Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman said it was up to the Australian Olympic Committee to give athletes the best opportunity to perform.

The Legana father-of-three said Bach stressed the IOC's determination to give athletes their moment, despite the glut of sporting cancellations caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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Chesterman said there are two major challenges facing athletes ahead of the opening ceremony on July 24.

"First is gaining qualification for the Games with so much disruption to world sport and travel, and second is ensuring they are able to attend the Games free of coronavirus," he said.

"The situation regarding qualification is complex to say the least, with global travel restrictions among many measures that prevent qualifying events anywhere in the world from going ahead right now.

"International federations will seek to create a clear path to the Games for each sport. The AOC will certainly assist all our national federations in Australia as they respond to the specific decisions in their individual sports.

"Our focus is moving to the planning of our pre-Games preparation to ensure we get our athletes to the Games healthy, prepared and virus-free. Clearly that is a major challenge for all national Olympic committees."

Chesterman said initiatives being considered include extended pre-Games camps in Australia or Japan, the option of taking the team direct from camps into Tokyo and minimising time spent in the Olympic village.

"We will work with sports to curate bespoke solutions to deliver our athletes to the Games fit and healthy and ready to go," he added.

In the wake of the global disruption caused by COVID-19 and resultant public health measures, Chesterman said urgent adaptations to the qualification processes for each sport should be clearer by early April when international federations submit revised systems.

The AOC stressed it would continue planning and preparations for the Tokyo Olympics with athlete and official health and safety the major priority.

It has undertaken a range of measures to comply with government public health considerations.

This included: postponing team appeal dinners; cancelling a planning trip to Tokyo; conducting its annual meeting on-line; having staff working from home; introducing risk mitigation protocols for team selection announcements; and suspending activities around live sites and other events.

A Chef de Mission at six Winter Games, Chesterman becomes the first person to also hold the Summer Games position and will complete a Japanese round trip in Tokyo having first filled the role in Nagano in 1998.