The world’s top sporting event, the Olympic Games scheduled for summer 2020 in Tokyo, has been officially postponed to 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement came on Tuesday, following Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the head of the International Olympics Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach morning conference call.
In the afternoon, the office of Japan’s PM tweeted that the two sides agreed that the Olympics won’t be cancelled but held by the summer of 2021.
After his telephone talks with IOC President Bach, PM Abe spoke to the press and explained that the two have agreed that the Tokyo Olympic Games would not be cancelled, and the games will be held by the summer of 2021. pic.twitter.com/ihe8To2g3R
— PM's Office of Japan (@JPN_PMO) March 24, 2020
On Monday, IOC long-standing member, Dick Pound first told USA TODAY Sports that the Games would not begin as scheduled on July 24.
“In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo 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,” said IOC and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee in a joint statement.