The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, which were scheduled to start on July 24, have been postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic after Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held talks with International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach and other stakeholders on Tuesday.

Joint Statement from the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committeehttps://t.co/XNcaa4Gvx8

— Olympics (@Olympics) March 24, 2020

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“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,” said a statement on the official website of the Tokyo Olympics.

The Olympic, thus, has become the latest sporting event and possibly the biggest of them all to be rescheduled due to the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus which has already killed over 17, 200 people and affected more than 3,95,500 people worldwide.

“President Bach and Prime Minister Abe expressed their shared concern about the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and what it is doing to people’s lives and the significant impact it is having on global athletes’ preparations for the Games,” the statement added.

Abe and Bach were joined by joined by Mori Yoshiro, the President of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee; the Olympic Minister, Hashimoto Seiko; the Governor of Tokyo, Koike Yuriko; the Chair of the IOC Coordination Commission, John Coates; IOC Director General Christophe De Kepper; and the IOC Olympic Games Executive Director, Christophe Dubi in the conference call.

The IOC had earlier given itself a time of four weeks to seal the fate of this year’s Olympics. The international governing body has faced a lot of heat for making the Summer Games the only major sporting event to not be cancelled or postponed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, despite the health concerns, Japan and the IOC were adamant to keep the Tokyo Olympics on schedule. While the IOC chief had said there was no need for a drastic decision, the Japanese PM had pledged to host the Games as scheduled and refused to declare the crisis an emergency in his country.

However, with Canada and Australia withdrawing from the Games on Monday, the pressure seems to have piled up on the authorities. Both the countries stated that it won’t be sending its contingent to Tokyo 2020 Olympics unless the tournament happens next year.