New Dates Announced for Postponed 2020 Summer Olympics

SHINJUKU CITY, TOKYO, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 30, 2019: Perspective view of Olympic Rings with men working. Background with New National Stadium (Tokyo). (By Sergio Yoneda)

The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo have officially been rescheduled.

The Summer Games will open July 23, 2021 and close Aug. 8, 2021, the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo organizing Committee announced Monday in a press release. The Paralympics will be held Aug. 24 through Sept. 5, 2021.

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The Olympics had originally been scheduled to begin on July 24 of this year, but were put on hold on Tuesday, March 24, because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said at the time that the games would be postponed for about a year.

“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 joint statement from the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee and the IOC.

The announcement came one day after International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA Today that the games would be pushed to 2021.

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

The decision to postpone the summer games came after Canada and Australia said they would not send athletes if the Olympics went ahead as planned.