Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the International Olympic Committee say they have agreed to delay the Tokyo Olympics for one year because of the spread of the coronavirus around the world.
Abe spoke with the International Olympic Committee’s president, Thomas Bach, on Tuesday as questions have dogged the organizing body about whether it should cancel or delay the Games, which were set to begin on July 24, as the number of cases of coronavirus continue to rise around the world.
Abe and Bach issued a joint statement afterwards, saying that “in the present circumstances,” they had decided the Games need to be postponed “to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021.” The move is an attempt “to safeguard the health of the athletes,