An official announcement has not yet been issued, but Dick Pound said the event will likely be rescheduled for 2021.
“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound told USA Today in an interview. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”
Pound said the IOC governing body will convene in the coming weeks to determine how the 2020 Olympic games will move forward. “It will come in stages,” Pound said, adding, “We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”
Olympic committees in Canada and Australia confirmed on Sunday that they would not send athletes to compete in the Tokyo games due to the health risks posed by the pandemic. “While we recognize the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community,” the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee said in a statement on Sunday.
“The athletes desperately want to go to the games,” said Australian Olympic Committee CEO Matt Carroll on Monday, “but they also take onboard their own personal health.”