It’s official: Tokyo Olympics postponed until 2021
On Tuesday, what even the most optimistic of sport fans must have suspected all along, was confirmed: The Tokyo Olympics will now be postponed due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis.
After a conference call on Tuesday morning that saw President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other stakeholders discuss the latest developments, it was announced that Tokyo 2020 will be pushed back to a later date.
The official IOC statement said: “In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.”
The announcement brings to an end a prolonged saga of indecision. Late on Monday night, a comment by IOC member Dick Pound in USA Today had all but confirmed a delay was a mere formality. “The parameters going forward have not been determined but the games are not going to start on 24 July, that much I know,” he said. A subsequent statement by the British Olympic Association calling for postponement made the UK the latest country unwilling to risk the health of its athletes.
The cancellation was the unavoidable conclusion of a series of events and announcements made over the previous 48 hours. First came the announcement on Sunday night by the IOC that a decision on whether the Tokyo Olympics would go ahead in July would be taken in four weeks time. As the world came to a standstill due to the spread of COVID19, even this concession seemed out of touch with the reality on the ground.
Things were changing by the hour. On Monday morning, Abe, speaking to parliament, acknowledged that the country must seriously consider
“It is with profound sadness that we accept the postponement, but in all consciousness it is the only decision we can support, in light of the devastating impact COVID-19 is having on
Swimming's 2021 World Aquatics Championships set for July 16-Aug. 1 in Fukuoka in southern Japan look set to be the first casualty of that move.
"We will now work closely with the host organizing committee of the 2021 FINA World Championships in Fukuoka, with the Japan Swimming Federation and with the Japanese public authorities, in order to determine flexibility around the dates of the competition, if necessary and in agreement with the IOC," world swimming body FINA said.
The 2021 World Athletics Championships are also certain to be postponed after organizers said they would shift the event to accommodate the rescheduled Olympics.
The championships were due to be held in the US state of Oregon from Aug. 6 to Aug. 15.
Two major soccer events due this year had already been moved to next year before the Games' announcement, with decisions last week to delay the European Championship and CONMEBOL's Copa America by a year. The two continental competitions will each now start on June 11 and end on July 11.
Both decisions led to FIFA's rebooted Club World Cup being indefinitely postponed, while the 2021 women's European Championship in England will also be moved to an as yet unconfirmed date as it clashes with the rescheduled men's tournament, which is going ahead across 12 nations.
The postponement of the Olympics, which features men and women's soccer, means the women's Euros cannot be moved to August and makes it more likely that the event will be played in the summer of 2022. It could also affect the 2021 UEFA Nations League and CONCACAF'S Gold Cup.