According to veteran International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound, the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics will be postponed to 2021.
The statement was made after countries like Australia, Canada, and Great Britain announced that they will not be competing in this summer’s games.
The IOC has given themselves four weeks to decide the fate of Tokyo 2020 and how it will be handled. According to Pound, “It will come in stages. We will postpone this and deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, almost all major entertainment & sporting events around the world have either been postponed or cancelled. Most of this took place before or right after the World Health Organization (WHO) classified COVID-19 as a pandemic.
Since then, pressure has been mounting on the Japanese government to either postpone or cancel the summer games. A very difficult decision, after spending billions of dollars to prepare for this global event.
However, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe told his country’s parliament on Monday that a postponement would be unavoidable if the event cannot be held in a complete way.