Tokyo Olympics: 2020 Games postponed by a year due to coronavirus
This summer’s Tokyo Olympic games will be delayed by one year due to the coronavirus epidemic, the event’s organisers have agreed.
“I proposed to postpone for about a year and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach responded with 100 per cent agreement,” Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said.
Speaking to the media following a call with Bach, Abe said that the games, which were due to start on 24 July, would be held by summer 2021 at the latest.
He added that Tokyo would host a “complete” Olympics as proof of the world’s victory over the disease.
Confirmation of the delay had been expected, with Abe warning earlier this week that a postponement would be inevitable if the events could not go ahead in full.
Previous Japanese authorities had insisted that the Olympics would go ahead as planned, with preparations already complete.
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Athletes around the world had been critical of plans to go ahead as expected, with former British Olympic champion cyclist Callum Skinner accusing the IOC of “arrogance and stubbornness”.
Their main concerns had centred around the health risks associated with continuing to train while the health risks from the virus were ongoing.
The Athletics Association said a survey of over 4,000 track and field competitors showed 78 per cent wanted the Games delayed, Reuters reported.
The Olympics have never been delayed in their 124-year modern history, though they were cancelled altogether in 1916, 1940 and 1944 during the two world wars.
Major Cold War boycotts disrupted the Moscow and Los Angeles Games in 1980 and 1984.
More to follow.