2020 Summer Olympics, Paralympics postponed

By Chris Price
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved
Video courtsey of CGTN via YouTube.com 

TOKYO, JAPAN (March 25, 2020) It has been decided by the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Organizing Committee that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad and the 16th Summer Paralympic Games will be postponed due to the worldwide COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. The Games will be delayed to 2021, and held no later than summer 2021. The Games will still be publicly branded and marketed as Tokyo 2020 and 2020 Summer Paralympics, even with the change in scheduling.

Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 7 September 2013.^[1] This will be the second time that Japan, and specifically Tokyo has hosted the Summer Olympic Games, the first being in 1964, making it the first city in Asia to host the summer Games twice. Overall, these will be the fourth Olympic Games to be held in Japan, which also hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972 (Sapporo) and 1998 (Nagano). The 2020 Games will be the second of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, the first being the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea, and the next being the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.

As part of a formal agreement between the International Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee first established in 2001, the winner of the bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics must also host the 2020 Summer Paralympics.

TexSport Publications will post further information as it becomes available.