To safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community, 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.
The decision comes as a result of the present circumstances and information provided by the WHO on COVID-19. Originally the message was that cancelling the Games was out of the question, but that was overturned yesterday when the IOC agreed “100%” that a postponement was the most appropriate response to the global disruption.
“We agreed that a postponement would be the best way to ensure that the athletes are in peak condition when they compete and to guarantee the safety of the spectators,” the Japanese Prime Minister said.
The 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”, the IOC and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee said later in a joint statement.
The Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will still be called the “Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020” even when they are held next year, and the Olympic flame will stay in Japan “as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times”.
