The fate of the 2020 Olympic Games has been in the balance since the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world. While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was incredibly bullish about the prospects of this year’s games going on as planned, it appears they have finally grasped the severity of the situation.
CNN reports that the IOC and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have announced that the 2020 games will be postponed to 2021. This news comes after Monday where the idea of postponement was finally being considered. Abe along with IOC President, Thomas Bach, released a joint statement announcing the postponement. It states:
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.
Despite the postponement, the games will still take place in Tokyo and bear the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 name. While both World Wars resulted in the games being canceled, this is the first time the Olympics have ever been postponed. As cases of COVID-19 continuously increase and worsen around the world, there is no real way to know when this is all going to end. China is just now showing signs of their outbreak slowing down, and given that the GOP is all set to sacrifice lives to appease the elder god called “the market,” this might take a minute on our end.