The 2020 Olympic Games have been finally been postponed due to the Coronavirus.
Japan’s prime minister and the head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Games by a year on Tuesday in an extraordinary move, unprecedented in peacetime.
The IOC was under mounting pressure to delay the event as the Covid-19 pandemic had grown too disruptive in the past month to have the competition in July-August and Canada and Australia had led a boycott.
Japanese PM Shinzo Abe told reporters referring to IOC chief Thomas Bach: “I proposed to postpone for about a year and President Bach responded with 100 percent agreement.”
DAY ZERO: A countdown display clock shows the remaining days until the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.Picture: Jae C. Hong/AP.
The move would be a devastating blow for the city of Tokyo, which had won widespread praise for its organisation, with venues finished well ahead of time and tickets massively oversubscribed.
The Olympics, which has experienced boycotts, terrorist attacks and protests, but has been held every four years since 1948, would be the highest-profile event affected by the virus that has killed thousands and closed sports competitions worldwide.
The IOC has come under increasing pressure in recent days to postpone the Games, scheduled to start on 24 July, with 1.7 billion people across the planet in lockdown to prevent the further spread of Covid-19.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/miketirico?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@miketiricoabout what led to the decision to postpone the Olympic Games and about the plan for a rescheduled Games in Tokyo in 2021. https://t.co/ter5J6xJDj
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics)
Training has become impossible for many athletes and exposes them to the risk of contracting or spreading the disease. Competitions and qualifiers have been scrapped, while international travel is severely limited.