Japan Seeks One-Year Postponement Of Olympics

Sports Illustrated reports:

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike have proposed a one-year postponement of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in a conference call with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

Abe said Bach agreed “100%” with this proposal, which would have to be approved by the IOC’s Executive Board. The Olympics have never been postponed in history. The modern Olympics has been canceled only during wartime. A final decision would have to be announced and made by the IOC and Bach.

The announcement by Abe comes after senior IOC member Dick Pound said that the fate of the Tokyo Olympics would be a postponement.

UPDATE: That was quick.



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

Instead the Games, the world’s largest sporting event, will take place in the summer of 2021, a change that will wreak havoc with sports schedules but should bring great relief to the athletes, organizers and health officials who had increasingly pressed that the coronavirus pandemic made it unsafe to go forward with the event.