As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the Olympic Games scheduled for June 2020 will not be able to start on that date. They have been postponed for next year 2021 in July.
The decision has been made. The Tokyo Olympic Games will take place from 23 July to 3 August 2021.
The Olympic event was originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020. But because of the covid-19 pandemic, the IOC, in conjunction with the Japanese organizers, took the unprecedented decision to postpone it for a year.
Postponement to the summer of 2021 could have caused some problems. The World Athletics Championships were scheduled for August 2021 in the United States. The swimming championships from July 16 to August 1, 2021, in Japan.
But even before the IOC decided on the postponement, World Athletics, the international athletics federation, and FINA, the swimming federation, had opened the door to postponing their World Championships by a year to make room for the Olympics, an unmissable event for their athletes.
The postponement of the Olympic Games by one year will in any case have no consequences for those sportsmen and women who had already qualified by the end of July 2020. They remain qualified for 2021. Meeting by teleconference on 26 March, IOC officials and those of the international federations concerned by the Summer Games agreed on this basic principle.
Gerard Rugambwa
