Summer Olympics Officially Postponed, Rescheduled for 2021

Posted by zz Dan Hauser

Updated on March 24th, 2020

With the majority of activities and events being cancelled and postponed due to the ongoing cornavirus pandemic, the Summer Olympics in Tokyo has been added to that list.

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach agreed on Tuesday to postone the Tokyo 2020 games until 2021. While an exact date wasn't announced it was decided that the games will be held at some point before the end of the summer in 2021. 

The decision was made after several countries, including the United States and Canada, espressed concers over the travel and logistics of holding an international event given everything going on in the world. 

The postponment of the Olympics marks the first time in history that the event did not go on as regularly scheduled for a non-war related issue. In 1916, 1940 and 1944, the Games were canceled because of the world wars.

The Olympics joins the long list of both national and international events that have been either postponed or cancelled in recent weeks. The NBA, NHL, MLS, and NASCAR have all suspended their current seasons while Major League Baseball has pushed back the start of their season indefinitely. The XFL, the neew spring football league, cancelled the remainder of their season completely. All professional golf tours have suspended their seasons and both the Masters and PGA Championship have been postponed. Internationally, the Euro 2020 soccer tourmanent has been postponed until 2021.