Tokyo 2020 Olympics postponed – a timeline of how we got here

Tokyo Olympic Games becomes first to be postponed as coronavirus crisis disrupts world’s biggest sporting showpiece

IOC and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe move Games to 2021 after holding fast to opening on July 24

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A man wearing a protective face mask looms at the Olympic rings in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters

Published: 3:52pm, 25 Mar 2020Updated: 4:30pm, 25 Mar 2020

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been confirmed as taking place in 2021 after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cut a deal to postpone the Games with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

The postponement was a dramatic U-turn for both parties, just a week after Bach said there was “No plan B” and both parties had reiterated that it was full steam ahead for the original opening date of July 24.

This is a historic decision. The Olympics have never been postponed. They were cancelled during the world wars and also moved – Rome pulled out of hosting 1908 after Vesuvius erupted in 1906 and the 1940 Games were originally moved from Tokyo to Helsinki before being cancelled – but never delayed.

So how did we get here? Here is a timeline of the long-troubled Tokyo 2020 Olympics:

March 24

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announces that the Tokyo Games will be moved to 2021. “President Bach said he will agree ‘100 per cent’, and we agreed to hold the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in the summer of 2021 at the latest. In order to hold the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in a complete form as a proof of a victory by human beings against the coronavirus infections.”

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