Move FM Australian News

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are being postponed, according to International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound.

Pound told USA Today on Monday that the Games likely will be pushed back to 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with the details still to be worked out.

“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” he told the newspaper in a phone interview. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”

The IOC, whose executive board announced Sunday it would take four weeks to assess the impact of the global health crisis, issued a response to Pound’s comments.

“It’s the right of every IOC member to interpret the decision of the IOC EB which was announced (Sunday),” read the statement, per ESPN.

A growing number of countries have called for a postponement, including Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal and Norway.

Pound, a Canadian who has been an IOC member since 1978, said he thinks the IOC will announce its next steps soon.

“It will come in stages,” he said. “We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”

–Field Level Media