It has been announced that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are now postponed until 2021.
The Olympics were scheduled to be held this year during July and August but due to the coronavirus outbreak it has now been announced that the games will be postponed for a year until the summer of 2021. The announcement came from the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, who said that he had a phone call with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Thomas Bach, in which they agreed to postpone the games until next year.
The IOC and Japanese Government had previously ruled out holding the games behind closed doors whilst also looking for any solutions which would allow the games to go ahead as planned. However, with the situation escalating and constantly developing the decision has now officially been made to postpone.
In a joint statement it was confirmed that although the games will take place in 2021, they will still be named the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics whilst the Olympic flame will remain in Japan until the games officially begin. The statement said that the outbreak was having a significant impact on athletes’ preparations and also said that the health of the athletes and all involved was paramount so the decision to postpone had to be made based on the information from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Many national Olympic associations had called for the games to be cancelled and had announced that they would not send athletes if it went ahead and now the postponement has been officially announced many athletes have expressed that the right decision has been taken.
You can read the full statement here.
