The Tokyo Summer Olympics are being postponed until next year, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday. Here, a person in Tokyo takes a photo of a clock counting down the days until the planned start of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. USA TODAY USPW/USA TODAY Sports hide caption
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USA TODAY USPW/USA TODAY Sports
The Tokyo Summer Olympics will not begin in late July and instead will be held “by the summer of 2021,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Tuesday. The news follows growing calls for the games to be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abe revealed the decision to journalists after speaking by phone with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach. Abe’s office said via Twitter, “the two have agreed that the Tokyo Olympic Games would not be cancelled, and the games will be held by the summer of 2021.”
The IOC and Tokyo organizers released a joint statement saying the games won’t be held in 2020 in an attempt “to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.”
Until this week, Olympic organizers had insisted that the Tokyo games would go on as planned, dismissing any talk of forming contingency plans for dealing with a deadly respiratory disease that is now found in nearly every country in the world.
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
In addition to the potential risks to public safety that massive Olympics crowds would entail, athletes in many countries have seen their training disrupted or interrupted, and the coronavirus has forced a number of high-profile qualifying competitions to be canceled or postponed.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee joined those calling for a postponement on Tuesday, releasing a statement saying that after speaking with athletes on the team, the committee had concluded that “the enormous disruptions to the training environment, doping controls and qualification process can’t be overcome in a satisfactory manner.”
The U.S. committee urged the IOC to ensure that the Tokyo games are “conducted under safe and fair conditions for all competitors.”
