The Tokyo 2020 Olympics gets postponed to the summer of 2021. A tweetr posted by the Japanese Prime Minister's office stated that after discussion with the International Olympic Committee president Bach, the pm of Japan Shinzo Abe and the former decided that the games will not be cancelled but postponed to 2021.
The discussions about the tournament getting postponed or cancelled due to the recent coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak has been making the rounds for quite some time. But both Japan and the IOC were adamewnt about the event taking place as per schedule.
Olympics delayed due to Coronavirus
However, with the rapid spread of the deadly novel virus the IOC on Sunday responded by saying that it would consider delaying and not cancelling the tournament and the decision will be taken in the coming weeks. After this announcement both Canada and Australia one after the other announced that they will not send athletes if the event takes place this year.
The decision of the delaying of the tournament comes after the Japanese pm had a meeting with the IOC president over telephone discussing the fate of the tournament amid the deadly virus outbreak which has created havoc in many countries especially in Europe.
Till now, the coronavirus outbreak has claimed the lives of more than 16,000 people worldwide and has infected over 380,000 people globally in over 150 countries and the new epicentre of the outbreak is Europe.
