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Today's topic is "Tokyo Olympics Postponed to 2021"

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that the 2020 Summer Olympics will be postponed as the coronavirus shuts down daily life around the world.

The IOC said the Tokyo Games "must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020, but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community."

IOC President Thomas Bach and Japan's Prime Minister Abe Shinzo spoke on the phone on the morning of March 24. They, along with officials from the IOC and Japan's organizing committee, agreed to make the decision.

Other Olympics – 1916, 1940 and 1944 – have been canceled because of war, but none has ever been postponed.

The decision comes as a relief to the 11,000 or so potential Olympic athletes who no longer have to train under near-impossible conditions.

One reason the IOC took longer to make the decision was because it wanted to figure out logistics. Many of the arenas, stadiums and hotels are under contract for games to be held from July 24 to August 7. It's possible to change those arrangements, but it will be expensive. Tokyo has already spent a reported $28 billion on the games.

For weeks, it was becoming increasingly clear that it would no longer be possible to start the games on July 24. Olympic committees in Canada and Australia were saying they either would not, or could not, send a team to Tokyo in July. World Athletics and the three biggest sports in the United States – swimming, track and gymnastics – were also calling for the games to be postponed.

As recently as March 22, the IOC was saying it would take up to four weeks to reach a decision. Four weeks ended up being two days.

#WorldNews #AudioNews #TokyoOlympics