Coronavirus: Tokyo 2020 Olympics Postponed To Summer 2021

The Prime Minister of Japan has reached an agreement with the IOC to postpone the Summer Olympics in Tokyo to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan asked Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, for the postponement and he agreed “100 percent,” Mr. Abe told reporters.

The decision on Tuesday came after months of internal discussion and mounting pressure from nations and athletes across the world who had urged that the Games, the world’s largest sporting event, be postponed. Government lockdowns to control the pandemic had shut down qualifying tournaments, closed training facilities and kept athletes sequestered at home.

[Tweet “The postponement came after Olympics officials in the United States, which sends the largest delegations of athletes to the Games, urged a postponement and Canada said it would not send its athletes.”]

The International Olympic Committee, however, had insisted on pressing forward with the event, only on Sunday announcing that within four weeks it would make a decision on the Games, raising questions across the Olympic movement over why it was further delaying a decision.

The postponement came after Olympics officials in the United States, which sends the largest delegations of athletes to the Games, urged a postponement and Canada said it would not send its athletes. Several other national Olympic committees, including in Brazil and Australia, also sided with postponing the event. Surveys of athletes by sports federations overwhelmingly favored postponing the Games because of the restrictions they were facing in preparing.

Japan has invested more than $10 billion to prepare for the Games. The Olympics have previously been not held only because of war. The 1916 Summer Olympics were canceled as a result of World War I and the Summer and Winter Games were canceled in 1940 and 1944 because of World War II.