(Photo: abcnews.go.com)

The 2020 Olympics are officially postponed

The Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and chief of the International Olympics Committee, Thomas Bach, has decided to postpone the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Tokyo due to the growing concern of the coronavirus. For now, they’ve agreed to postpone the Olympics until 2021 after facing a huge amount of pressure to delay the international sporting event that was planned to take place from July 24 to August 9.

The postponement of the event is making history as the only event to be postponed during peacetime as three other Olympic games were canceled in 1916, 1940, and 1944 during the time of world wars. The IOC was also facing pressure from other participating countries that announced they will not allow athletes to attend the event.

The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, originally scheduled to be held from 24 July-9 August 2020, will “be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021.”https://t.co/MZrvZAqipL

— Olympic Channel (@olympicchannel) March 24, 2020

Prior to the postponement announcement, Australia and Canada announced they will not be sending their athletes to Tokyo. Both countries are encouraging their athlete to continue training in preparation for the 2021 Olympics.