Mumbai: For the first time in the history one of the global event that the Olympics have been postponed by a year.
The decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the event was confirmed on Tuesday and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to rejoin the Tokyo Olympics in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Olympics that were cancelled were never postponed in the past. In 1916, 1940 and 1944, the Games were cancelled due to world wars.
The Tokyo Olympics will now take place next year.
The IOC, however, stated that the original name of Tokyo 2020 will remain intact despite the fact that it will be next year.
“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,” the IOC said in an official statement.
“The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a ray of hope for the world during these troubled times and that the flame of the Olympics could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world currently finds itself. 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,” the statement added.
The IOC was under great pressure to postpone the game as the entire world has been sent into a lockdown due to COVID-19. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and the Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC) announced on Monday that they would not send their teams to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2020 due to the pandemic.
The Tokyo Olympic Games were to be held from July 24 to August 9, while the Paralympic Games were to be held from August 25 to September 6.
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