The 2020 Summer Olympics will be postponed Due to Corona-Virus .

The Olympics games will be delayed until 2021.

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The 2020 Summer Olympics are officially postponed, reports the New York Times. Full details have yet to be announced, but on Monday, March 23, International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA Today that the games would most likely be delayed until 2021. 

 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed the news, saying that he and the IOC had agreed on the decision “100 percent.”

The postponement comes after weeks of back-and-forth between the IOC and the athletic community. The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were scheduled to begin on July 24, but athletic groups called for them to be postponed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Even if global travel becomes safe again by July, athletes argued that it’s not currently safe to train at Olympic levels. Athletes in countries affected by Corona-Virus have limited ability to effectively prepare for a July event, so a July Olympics wouldn’t have a level playing field.

The IOC, meanwhile, maintained a “wait-and-see stance,” saying it would be irresponsible to speculate on what the future might hold, but avowed that it would absolutely not cancel the 2020 Olympics. In an interview with private newspaper, IOC president Thomas Bach officially refused to set a date by which point he would make a decision about the future of the 2020 games.

On Sunday, the IOC said it would give itself four weeks to make a decision on the fate of the games, but mounting pressure from athletes and countries forced the IOC's hand. Canada said it would not send athletes to the Olympics without a delay, and Australia followed suit.

         .The postponement marks the first time the Olympics have been delayed for something other than war. They had previously been delayed in 1916, 1940, and 1944.