Japan and the IOC have officially agreed to postpone the Summer Olympic Games to 2021.
This decision came after multiple conversations between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This marks the fourth time in the history of the modern Olympic Games that they are being postponed, but for the first due to a global health crisis. The Olympic Games were previously canceled in 1916, 1940, and 1944, during the first and second world wars.
Their joint statement read as follows: “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.”
It was also announced that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan.
