Coronavirus: Tokyo 2020 Olympics has been officially postponed

25 March 2020

Due to the on-going Coronavirus situation, the Japanese Government and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has agreed to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The announcement was made by the office of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The statement from the office noted that the games will not be held later than the summer of 2021.

IOC and the Tokyo Organizing committee also released an official statement regarding the same which you can read below.

“In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the [World Health Organization] 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 event was due to begin on July 24 in Tokyo. Despite being postponed, the organising committee noted that the event will still be called Tokyo 2020 even if it happens in 2021.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics is the latest major sporting event to be postponed due to the global Coronavirus situation which has resulted in more than 18,000 deaths across the world as of writing. More than 422,000 people have also been infected by the virus.