Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been postponed till 2021, the agreement was reached today Tuesday after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) met. They gave initially four weeks’ deadline to consider delaying Tokyo 2020, which is due to start on 24 July, because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Initially they said cancellation was not on the agenda before now so the Japan authorities were on the opinion that they were still going to host the Olympic Games despite the COVID 19 epidemic. However, other countries have been against the opinion.
Canada threatened to pull out of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games if they do not postpone it. Courntries has been mounting pressure from a host of Olympic committees and athletes demanding a quicker decision. Yesterday the IOC member Dick Pound said the event, scheduled to run until 9 August, will be postponed by one year.
Then, today Tuesday, an IOC spokesperson said: “Today, the IOC is discussing with the Japanese government, the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and the IOC executive board about the scenario planning including the postponement of the Games and will communicate in due course.”
BOA chairman Hugh Robertson has already said Great Britain is unlikely to send a team to Tokyo this summer should they still go on with the games. “I really don’t see that there’s any way that this can press ahead with a start in July of this year,” the chairman said.
“We’ve always said that there were two things that for us are really important here. The first was preserving the competitive integrity of the Olympic Games when the country is effectively locked down. when athletes can’t train, and when I get to say some of them may catch coronavirus. There’s no way you can preserve that competitive integrity.
“Secondly, there’s a really serious question about whether it would be appropriate to hold the Olympic Games against this backdrop.” He concluded. After the meeting with the board they came to the conclusion that they were going to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games by one year. Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will now be played in 2021 summer.
The coronavirus has really affected sporting activities across the world with Euro 2020 also postponed to 2021 and Champions league and Europa league all postponed. All football leagues in the world currently are shut down and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games just joined the postponement line.
