International Olympics Committee (IOC) on Tuesday decided that the Games will retain its names - Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2020 - despite its postponement until the summer of 2021 owing to the coronavirus pandemic. After weeks of discussion and contemplation, the organisers of the summer Games decided to shift the Olympics by a year, hence relieving the athletes of training amid these tough times.
"The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present. Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan. It was also agreed that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020," the IOC statement read.
Prior to the official announcement on Tuesday evening, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that IOC president Thomas Bach had agreed with his proposal to postpone the Olympics by a year.
“President Bach said he will agree ‘100%,’ and we agreed to hold the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in the summer of 2021 at the latest,” Abe said, saying holding the games next year would be “proof of a victory by human beings against the coronavirus infections.”
“In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo 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,” the IOC said in a statement.
The Games were originally slated to be held from July 24 onwards. But the coronavirus pandemic had left most Olympic qualifiers suspended.
