As the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee last night added its voice to the chorus of national Olympic committees calling for postponement of this summer’s Tokyo Games, the International Olympic Committee bowed to pressure and moved the Games to next year. The joint announcement by IOC President Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came, a day after saying it would take four weeks to come up with a plan that might have included going ahead with competition on its July 24-Aug.9 dates this year.
Bach and Abe “expressed their shared concern about the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and what it is doing to people’s lives and the significant impact it is having on global athletes’ preparations for the Games.”
Calling the Olympics a “beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times,” they stated that the Olympic flame “could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present. 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.”
There are many questions to be answered in the wake of the postponement, from what to do about the Olympic village–whose apartments were being sold to private owners after the Games, to dealing with hotel reservations, travel arrangements, sponsorship and more. At this point, with the threat of the virus still strong and while we don’t even know when sports will go back into action,making plans for the future has to be on hold.
