The International Olympic Committee announced a first-of-its-kind postponement of the Summer Olympics on Tuesday, bowing to the realities of a coronavirus pandemic that is shutting down daily life around the globe and making planning for a massive worldwide gathering in July a virtual impossibility.
The International Olympic Committee announced a first-of-its-kind postponement of the Summer Olympics on Tuesday, bowing to the realities of a coronavirus pandemic that is shutting down daily life around the globe and making planning for a massive worldwide gathering in July a virtual impossibility.
The IOC said the Tokyo Games “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.”
It was an announcement seen as all but a certainty as pressure mounted from nervous athletes, sports organizations and national Olympic committees — all confronting the reality that training and qualifying schedules, to say nothing of international anti-doping protocols, had been ruptured beyond repair.
The IOC also said the Games will still be called the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Utter relief. Excitement. Uncertainty. We’re in unprecedented times,” Canadian wrestler Erica Wiebe told CBC Sports. On March 14, she clinched her second Olympic at the Pan American qualifying event in Ottawa. “We’ll be more ready than ever in 2021 and wearing the Maple Leaf with more pride than I thought was possible.”
IOC president Thomas Bach and Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo met via phone Tuesday morning, and they, along with a handful of executives from the IOC and Japan’s organizing committee, agreed to make the call.
WATCH | Canadian athletes weigh in on postponement:
Now that the IOC have pushed the start of the games, athletes took to social media to respond. 1:00
Pressure mounted to postpone
Other Olympics — 1916, 1940 and 1944 — have been cancelled because of war, but none have ever been postponed for any reason, let alone a renegade virus that has accounted for more than 375,000 cases worldwide, with numbers growing exponentially. The Tokyo Games would still be called the 2020 Olympics, even though they will be held in 2021.
“The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope,” the IOC said in a statement.
On Sunday, Bach said a decision on postponing the games would be made in the next four weeks. But pressure grew as national federations, sports governing bodies and athletes spoke out against having the opening ceremony as planned on July 24. Four weeks ended up being two days.
Bach said Monday he did not discuss new dates for the 2020 Olympics in talks with Abe. One option would be July 23-Aug. 8. That is exactly one year from the now-postponed July 24-Aug. 9 dates. He added the exact dates is a question for the Tokyo organizing committee and an IOC panel overseeing the preparations.
The decision came only a few hours after local organizers said the torch relay would start as planned on Thursday. It was expected to start in n