I.O.C. and Japan Agree to Postpone Tokyo Olympics

I.O.C. and Japan Agree to Postpone Tokyo Olympics

I.O.C. and Japan Agree to Postpone Tokyo Olympics

TOKYO — After months of internal discussions and mounting pressure from nations and athletes across the world, the International Olympic Committee will postpone the Tokyo Games that had been scheduled to begin in late July, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said Tuesday.

The Games, the world’s largest sporting event, will instead take place in the summer of 2021, a change that will likely wreak havoc with sports schedules but should bring great relief to the athletes, organizers and health officials who pressed for a delay and complained that the I.O.C. was not moving quickly enough to adjust to the coronavirus pandemic.

The decision became inevitable after the national Olympic committee in Canada announced on Sunday that it was withdrawing from the Games, and Australia’s committee told its athletes that it was not possible to train for this summer under the widespread restrictions in place to control the virus. The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, after initially declining to take a stand, joined the fray Monday night, urging the I.O.C. to postpone.

In announcing the decision, Abe said that he asked Thomas Bach, the president of the I.O.C., for a one-year delay and that Bach “agreed 100 percent.”

In a photo released by Japan’s Cabinet Public Relations Office, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, center, participates with other leaders in a conference call with Thomas Bach, the I.O.C. president.
Bach said the situation became untenable in recent days as the World Health Organization detailed the acceleration of the virus in Africa for Olympic leaders. That forced the I.O.C. to shift its focus from whether Japan could be safe at the start of the Games in four months to what was happening immediately in various countries and continents.
“We had growing confidence in the developments in Japan,” Bach said in a conference call with journalists. “In 4½ months these safe conditions could be offered. Then we had this big wave coming from the rest of the world.”

As the virus spread, Bach said athletes began voicing concerns about risking their health to continue training, and it became clear that the pandemic was “clearly rocking the nerves of the athletes and it’s also not a situation we have ever been in.”

He said that finalizing the details of a new schedule and negotiating with international federations to make adjustments in the global sports calendar will take time.