2020 Tokyo Olympics postponed until 2021

According to multiple online reports, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is expect to announce the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

IOC member Dick Pound first broke the news earlier today in an interview with USA Today. Read below for some quotes from Pound:

“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound told USA today.

“The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on 24 July, that much I know.”

“We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”

Canada and Australia had already announced that they would NOT be sending athletes to the Tokyo Olympics, word is that Great Britain was ready to pull the plug as well before today’s announcement.

“We can’t see any way that this can go ahead as things are constituted,” said Hugh Robertson, head of GB’s Olympic committee. “I expect we will be joining Canada and Australia shortly.”

“I think it is very simple. If the virus continues as predicted by the government, I don’t think there is any way we can send a team,” Robertson said.

“First, I don’t see any way that the athletes and Team GB could be ready by then. Elite training facilities are perfectly understandably and quite correctly closed around the country, so there is no way they could undertake the preparation they need to get ready for a Games.

“Secondly, there is the appropriateness of holding an Olympic Games at a time like this. We are actually in a process where we are talking to all our sports. We will complete that over the next couple of days.

“We have already said to the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that we think their four-week pause is absolutely the right thing to do.”

Well, today’s news makes things easy for the entire sporting world. The 2020 Olympics are shut down. See you in 2021, folks.