Today, President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a joint statement on the postponement of the Olympic games to next year. The Games in Tokyo were supposed to be held from July 24 to August 9, but the COVID-19 virus pandemic does not allow organizing competitions in these terms with guarantees of safety to the health and life of participants and spectators.
Recall that at the 2020 Games, the Olympic debut of 3×3 basketball was planned.
«The situation in the world, provoked by an unprecedented and unpredictable outbreak of the virus, continues to deteriorate. To date, more than 375 thousand cases of the disease have been recorded in almost all countries of the world, and this number is growing hourly. Under the current conditions and taking into account the information received today from the World Health Organization, the IOC President and Japanese Prime Minister concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad should be postponed until 2020, but no later than the summer of 2021, in order to protect the health of athletes all involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.
The leaders of the IOC and Japan agreed that the Tokyo Olympics could remain a beacon of hope in these difficult times, and the Olympic flame will be the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world is now,” the statement said.
