It's Official: Tokyo 2020 Olympics Will Be Postponed Until Next Year
The new dates will be from 23 July to 8 August 2021.
By Tamara Jayne — 25 Mar 2020, 11:02 AM — Updated over 4 years ago
It has been confirmed that the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be postponed until next year
In an official statement, yesterday, 24 March, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced their agreement to postpone the Tokyo Olympics due to the current global environment.
The Games will be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021
The new dates were announced on 30 March, as reported by The Japan Times.
The director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the coronavirus pandemic is "accelerating", with more than 375,000 cases recorded worldwide from nearly every country.
President Abe confirmed that cancelling the Games is out of the question. Given the situation and based on the statement by WHO, both leaders agreed that a postponement will be the best response.
"We agreed that a postponement would be the best way to ensure that the athletes are in peak condition when they compete and to guarantee the safety of the spectators," President Abe told reporters, according to The Guardian.
Prior to the announcement, Canada, Australia, and the UK pulled out of the Olympics and pushed for the Games to be postponed
The 2020 Olympic Games was planned to be held from 24 July 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.
"No one wants to see the Olympic Games postponed but, as I have said publicly, we cannot hold the event at all costs, certainly not at the cost of athlete safety. A decision on the Olympic Games must become very obvious very quickly. I believe that time has come and we owe it to our athletes to give them respite where we can," World Athletics president Lord Briton Coe wrote in a letter to Bach.
