FLAME IS ‘A BEACON OF HOPE’
Organisation for the Games had continued despite the outbreak of WW1 two years earlier but were cancelled when hostilities continued.
Tokyo forfeited the Games to Helsinki after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Finnish capital lost them to WWII. 1944 Summer Olympics in London
The continuation of WWII made it impossible for the Games to take place but London staged the austerity Games four years later. indicated that it was inappropriate to contemplate holding the event at a time of such worldwide emergency.
Finally, at lunchtime yesterday, the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organising committee ruled that the Olympics be
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“You give your heart and soul to something for four years then for it not to go ahead is just horrible. Obviously health comes first and my biggest priority is protecting my family and my loved ones and doing everything I can do to help save the lives of others.
“But as an elite athlete, it is very demotivating and mentally tough. I’m a very positive person but the idea, right now, of having to devote myself to another year’s slog is a very difficult one.”
Never in its 124-year modern history has the Olympics been delayed, though it was cancelled three times due to world wars.
British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Anson and the community”.
Cue relief from athletes everywhere, with JohnsonThompson tweeting: “As an athlete, it’s heartbreaking news about the Olympics being postponed until 2021 but it’s for all international said: “It would have been unthinkable for us to continue to prepare for an Olympic Games at a time the nation – and the world no less – is enduring great hardship.”
Tokyo bosses decided the Olympic torch should “stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times. The flame becomes the light at the end of the tunnel”.