The Tokyo Olympics originally scheduled for 2020 have been postponed “no later than the summer of 2021” due to the coronavirus pandemic, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Tuesday.
Japan had proposed a one-year postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepted it, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced on Tuesday.
“I offered to postpone them for about a year and the president of the International Olympic Committee (Thomas) Bach agreed 100%,” Abe said in front of the television cameras.
The Prime Minister made the statement after a conference call with Mr. Bach.
This postponement will be a first for the modern era Olympics in peacetime. Previously only the two world conflicts of the 20th century had led to the technical postponement and then the cancellation of the Olympiads.
It is a huge blow to the city of Tokyo and Japan, who have been preparing meticulously for years to host the biggest sporting event on the planet from July 24 to August 9, followed by the Paralympics from August 25 to September 6.
The Japanese authorities and the IOC have long been reluctant to officially consider changing the Olympic calendar.
But the pressure from athletes, then from national and international sports federations, became stronger day by day with the inexorable spread of the coronavirus, which appeared in China at the end of 2019 and which is now rampant elsewhere in the world, especially in Europe.
Covid-19 disease has killed at least 16,961 people worldwide since its onset in December, according to a report by AFP from official sources Tuesday at 12.00.
More than 386,350 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 175 countries and territories since the start of the epidemic.
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