IOC Shelves 2020 Tokyo Olympics

• Games now hold next year
• Japan mulls £5bn investment loss

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games have been postponed until next year due to the coronavirus pandemic at an estimated cost to hosts, Japan of £5 billion.

On a day of unprecedented financial and logistical turmoil in global sports, crisis talks between the International Olympic Commission (IOC) and the Japanese government ended with an acceptance that the world’s biggest multi-sports event must be postponed for the first time in its 124-year history.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was originally scheduled to hold between July 24 and August 9, 2020 while the 2020 Summer Paralympics would also have taken place from August 25 to September 6, 2020.

Strong signals in support of shifting the Games had emerged on global level with more countries and international sporting Federations adding their voices to postponement calls that already saw Canada and Australia pulling out of the world’s biggest sporting fiesta. 

As things stand for now, sports and athletes are awaiting confirmation of a new date, likely to be the summer of 2021, and were on Monday night absorbing a day in which:

• Japan was left facing postponements costs in billions of British pounds sterling;
• Fears emerged that some athletes will quit rather than continue another year;
• The British Olympic Association (BOA) was left seeking reassurances over its vast planning and £60 million sponsorship deals;
• UK Sport confirmed that it will seek government help to fund athletes for another year;
• British athletes were offered specialist mental health support to process the news;
• Governing bodies prepared for further upheaval to their calendars in order to accommodate a new date in 2021.

The growing inevitability of the IOC and Japanese government’s decision was quickly underlined when it was confirmed that a member of Team GB’s Taekwondo staff had tested positive for coronavirus.

The Olympics have previously only been cancelled completely during periods of World War – in 1916, 1940 and 1944 – but never postponed or suspended.

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had proposed the one-year delay and that IOC president Thomas Bach was in total agreement.

“The unprecedented and unpredictable spread of the outbreak has seen the situation in the rest of the world deteriorating,” said a joint statement from the IOC and the Tokyo 2020 organising committee.

It followed acute global pressure for an immediate postponement after the IOC had earlier sought another four weeks to make a decision.

Tokyo Olympic organisers had already put the cost of staging the Olympics at $12.6 billion (£10.95 billion) and must now consider numerous logistical nightmares. There will also be complicated legal questions in relations to the liability for postponement.

Kansai University Economics professor emeritus, Katsuhiro Miyamoto, said that postponement of the 2020 Games would cost Japan about 640.8 billion yen (£5 billion).

Industry insiders also told The Telegraph that it would cause an “unprecedented” financial black hole worth billions. The IOC has insurance cover, underwritten by Lloyd’s of London, but organisers will be forced to reach settlements with the development firm who has sold off much of the property being used for the Athletes’ Village. –  Agency reports