The 2020 summer Olympics were supposed to take place in July in Tokyo, Japan, but with the recent outbreak of Coronavirus, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose to postpone the ceremonies for one year.  Because of the outbreak, most major sports leagues have cancelled their games.  Many athletes are concerned that they won’t be able to participate in the Olympics while others who would have been too young to participate this year are waiting to hear if the postponement will give them a new opportunity.

The IOC will be sending out updates on their website and they are encouraging athletes to prepare for the games in 2021.  The Japanese Prime Minister supported their earlier decision to continue the games and their later one to postpone them.  He believes that holding the games will show that our society is capable of conquering this virus.  He and the IOC hoped that the Coronavirus would be contained enough by July that it wouldn’t be too risky to hold the Olympics, but projections fell short and decisions were changed.

Not everyone agreed with the IOC’s earlier decision to host the games in 2020. Chloe Douglas said, “I think it’s good that we will still be able to watch the Olympics.  They should definitely try to keep things cleaner at the games, but I am glad that I will get to watch the Olympics while I am staying inside this summer.”  However, Joshua Lejano was not comfortable with the idea of the 2020 games. “As much as I love watching the Olympics, I feel like it’s just too dangerous to let the athletes compete (in 2020).  If one person gets sick, they could get everyone else at the games sick.  I think they should postpone the Olympics until next year instead.”

Moving the games to 2021 will mean that there is only about a seven month break before the Winter Games of 2022, currently scheduled to take place in Beijing.