Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that he and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach reached an agreement to postpone the Tokyo Olympics for one year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The decision was officially announced as multiple countries, including the U.S., called for the games to be delayed. Others such as Australia and Canada had said they would not send their athletes to Tokyo if the Olympics were to happen as scheduled.
Following a tweet from the Japanese prime minister’s office, the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games released an official statement confirming the postponement.
“In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, 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, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community,” the statement said.
A new start date has not yet been chosen. The Games were originally to be staged from July 24 to Aug. 9.
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