Tokyo Olympics Postponed to 2021: IOC

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been postponed until no later than the summer of 2021, as a result of a global coronavirus pandemic, the International Olympic Committee announced today.

The Games were scheduled for July 24-August 9, but after telephone talks between IOC President Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an unprecedented joint vote was made on the first postponement of the Peacetime Olympics.

Abe had earlier said Bach was in "100 percent agreement" when Japan asked the IOC to push back the Games.

In recent days, the IOC has been under-strain to cancel the largest athletic event in the world, with clubs, competitors and sports associations alike asking for a pause.

The postponement arrives after the major federations confirmed that they will withdraw from the Tokyo Games, the highest-profile occurrence to be hit by a virus that has decimated the sporting calendar.

Around 1.7 billion people around the world are in freeze to deter further transmission of a virus that has killed more than 16,200 people and infected more than 377,000 according to an AFP count.

Source: AFP