Olympics officially postponed until 2021

The 2020 Summer Olympics will no longer take place in 2020.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Tuesday that due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, he proposed a one-year delay for the Tokyo Olympics and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach agreed, The New York Times reports.

This move looked increasingly likely, especially after earlier this week, Canada and Australia both announced they would not send athletes to the Olympics if they were still held in Tokyo beginning this July amid the global pandemic, and Abe said a postponement might be "unavoidable." International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound said Monday a postponement had, in fact, been decided.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

A joint statement from the IOC and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee said Tuesday that Abe and the IOC have agreed the Olympics "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 Times writes this change "will wreak havoc with sports schedules but should bring great relief to the athletes," while CNN notes the unprecedented nature of the delay, as while the Olympics have previously been canceled during world wars, they've "never been rescheduled in peacetime."