Coronavirus: New dates for Tokyo Olympics likely to be declared next week

This is the first time in Olympics 124-year modern history that the Games have been postponed. They were cancelled in 1916, 1940 and 1944.

The Tokyo Olympics has been postponed to the summer of 2021.

2020 Tokyo Olympics Organising Committee chief Yoshiro Mori said on Saturday that the new dates for the postponed Olympic Games could be decided by the end of next week.

The Olympic Games, which is slated for the summer of 2021 at the latest, is most likely to be held between June and September, Mori said during a program broadcast by Nippon Television.

“I want to offer some conclusions by the end of next week after we’ve mulled it over,” Mori said.

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Mori also said in a letter addressed to the 33 international sports federations that the extra costs that come from the postponement of the Games will be inevitable and a challenge to cover. “Deciding who bears these costs will be a major challenge,” he said in the letter which has been posted on the website of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The announcement that the Tokyo Olympics was postponed was made by the IOC and the organising committee in a joint statement after president Thomas Bach’s telephonic conversation with Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This is the first time in Olympics 124-year modern history that the Games have been postponed. They were cancelled in 1916, 1940 and 1944.