Bad news to all sports fans! After weeks of thorough deliberation, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach agreed to postpone the Olympics until 2021. Due to the global health crisis caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the IOC has been facing overwhelming pressure to delay the Games. The Games were originally scheduled to take place from July 24 to August 9.
In a statement from organizing committee, the Games will be scheduled not later than Summer 2021.
“The IOC president and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games … must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.
Screenshot from France 24
Still, “Tokyo 2020”
Moreover, the Olympic torch procession scheduled ahead of the Games has now been canceled.
“The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present. Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan.”
AOC chief executive Matt Carroll and Australian chef de mission Ian Chesterman. Credit: Brendon Thorne/Getty Image
Prior to this, Canada announced on March 23 that they will no longer send their athletes as representatives to the 2020 Olympic Games set to commence in Tokyo due to the risk of global pandemic COVID-19. Likewise, Australia also withdrawn from associating their countrymen to the world-renowned event in a separate statement.
The Olympics have never been rescheduled in peacetime. In 1916, 1940 and 1944, the Games were canceled because of world wars.
