id=”article-body” class=”row” section=”article-body”> Simone Biles, an Olympics champion, is the most decorated American gymnast of all time. Tom Weller/Picture Alliance via Getty Images For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO website. Huge numbers of sporting events have been canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. And now the granddaddy of global sporting events, the Olympic Games, originally set for this summer in Tokyo, will join them. The office of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tweeted on Tuesday that following conversations with the International Olympic Committee, the Tokyo Olympics will now take place in 2021.
“After his telephone talks with IOC President Bach, PM Abe spoke to the press and explained that the two have agreed that the Tokyo Olympic Games would not be cancelled, and the games will be held by the summer of 2021,” said the tweet. In a statement on Tuesday, the IOC said the Games will be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020, but no later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of athletes and everyone involved in the Olympics. The sporting event will continue to be called Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.
“The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present,” the committee said in a statement. “Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan.” While the Olympics have been canceled in the past, because of World War I and World War II, they have never been postponed to a different year.
CNET Coronavirus Update Keep track of the coronavirus pandemic. The official announcement followed a report on Monday that IOC member Dick Pound had told USA Today that the games would be postponed. “On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound told USA Today. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.” Details had yet to be worked out, the newspaper reported.
where do you put your lips when you kiss asked if Pound was speaking officially for the IOC, the organization replied only that “It is the right of every IOC member to interpret the decision of the IOC EB which was announced yesterday.” That announcement has said that the committee would study different scenarios regarding the future of the 2020 Games. It went on to say that the group would finalize discussions within four weeks, and that cancellation was “not on the agenda.” Also on Monday, Reuters reported that Japan Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita said he was considering postponement, reflecting the most recent comments from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
US President Donald Trump tweeted that he will back whatever decision Abe makes: “We will be guided by the wishes of Prime Minister Abe of Japan.” Numerous teams had already said that they wouldn’t compete if the 2020 Olympics took place as planned. Late Monday, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee called on the IOC to postpone the Tokyo Games, citing the results of a survey sent to 4,000 Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls.