In a flabbergasting revelation just a while ago, the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics has just been announced to have an indefinite cancellation, amidst the novel Coronavirus pandemic that has spread throughout the world. Although A number of major sporting events and tournaments saw early postponements, the age-old grand event’s schedule was unchanged. however, a joint statement from the International Olympics Committee (IOC) and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee has decided to push back the inaugural date beyond 2020.
The news comes after a joint conference today, which was attended by the President of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee Mori Yoshiro, IOC Director General Christophe De Kepper, the Governor of Tokyo Koike Yuriko and some other top officials of the two governing bodies.
“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,” a statement read on the Olympics’s official website.
The Olympics will be postponed all the way into 2021, a first time in the grand event’s history since the second World War, which saw two cancellations in the year of 1940 and 1944.
Concerns over hosting Olympics at a critical time like this became a concern for Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who recently had hinted that postponing the Olympics was ‘unavoidable’.
“If it is difficult to hold (the Olympics) in a complete way, a decision of postponement would be unavoidable,” Abe said in a press conference yesterday.
Earlier, Canada and Australia had already decided to pull their athletes off from the Olympics, fearing the safety of their athletes during the event’s earlier dates from 24th July to 9th August this year.
More than 395,000 people have been affected by the virus globally, and Japan itself has seen 1140 positive cases as of today, including Japan’s Olympic committee deputy chief Kozo Tashima.
Now officially named ‘Olympics 2021’, its the first time in the tournament’s history to break away from its quadrennial cycle.
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