Other Pages
- Opinion Poll
- About Us
- Send Your Story
- Contact Us
- Newsletter
- Privacy Policy
- Terms and Conditions
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have been postponed until 2021 owing to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) disease pandemic.
Allnews reports that the glamorous event, due to begin on 24 July, will now take place "no later than summer 2021", the International Olympic (IOC) confirmed.
"I proposed to postpone for a year and [IOC] president Thomas Bach responded with 100% agreement," Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.
In a joint statement, the organisers of Tokyo 2020 and the IOC said: "The unprecedented and unpredictable spread of the outbreak has seen the situation in the rest of the world deteriorating.
"On Monday, the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the COVID-19 pandemic is 'accelerating'.
"There are more than 375,000 cases now recorded worldwide and in nearly every country, and their number is growing by the hour.
"In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today (Tuesday), 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."
READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Ex-Real Madrid President Hospitalised With Symptoms
The Tokyo 2020/IOC statement continued: "The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present.
"Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan. It was also agreed that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020."
As of 24 March, more than 394,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in more than 190 countries and territories, resulting in more than 17,200 deaths and more than 103,000 recoveries.
0 Comment(s)