This summer’s 2020 Tokyo Olympics have reportedly been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and will likely take place in 2021, according to a USA Today report.
“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided. The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know,” International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA Today.
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Pound expects the IOC to announce concrete plans for rescheduling the Olympic Games in the near future. This apparent decision to postpone Tokyo 2020 comes less than 24 hours after Canada and Australia announced that they wouldn’t be sending athletes to Japan this summer because of the pandemic.
This would represent the first time that the Olympics have been suspended, though Games have previously been canceled during periods of war. The 1916 Summer Games were canceled during World War I, while World War II canceled the 1940 Summer Games and 1944 Winter Games.
