The corona-virus has dramatically impacted sports worldwide. As many sports programs were paused, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was no exception and will now be held next year, in July of 2021.

The Olympics released a video of Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), giving a message to athletes. “In order to safeguard the health of the athletes and everybody involved in the olympic games, and to make a contribution to the containment of the corona-virus, we agreed to postpone the Olympic games of Tokyo 2020 to summer of 2021 at the latest.”

There are three times that the Olympics had been cancelled (during both World Wars). This was the first time in history that the Olympics has chosen to postpone.

The 2024 Olympics is expected to be held in Paris, and the 2028 Olympics is planned to be in Los Angeles. The last time the United States held the Olympics was in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In a public statement, the International Olympic Committee published a touching message: “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.”

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