TOKYO, JAPAN - MARCH 24: The Olympic Rings are pictured on March 24, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. Although an official decision is yet to be announced, International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound has said the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be postponed by one year because of the Covid-19 coronavirus after the chairman of the British Olympic Association said Great Britain would be unlikely to send a team to Tokyo this summer while Australia and Canada also said they will not compete as the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic that has so far seen over 380,000 infections around the world forces countries to take drastic measures to protect their populations.
(Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

The sports world keeps on crumbling in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak as the IOC has postponed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Many different sporting events have fallen victim to the coronavirus over the last few weeks. As fans, we’ve had to deal with the loss of March Madness, the suspension of the NHL, NBA, and MLB seasons, along with the complete cancellation of spring sports at the collegiate level.

And now, we sadly have a new event that won’t be occurring in 2020. On Monday, the International Olympic Committee decided to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Since then, the IOC and Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe have agreed that it will be rescheduled to summer 2021 at the latest.

“We agreed that a postponement would be the best way to ensure that the athletes are in peak condition when they compete and to guarantee the safety of the spectators,” Abe said to reporters, per The Guardian.

The IOC and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee additionally released a joint statement.

“[The events] 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.”

Since the outbreak began and became worse, it was always a thought that the Olympics would be postponed. Some believed that was crazy, some believed that was necessary. All in all, reality ended up pointing towards the latter.

So what does this mean regarding the succeeding Olympics? Will the Paris Olympics still occur in 2024? If the Tokyo Olympics don’t happen until 2021, will the IOC possibly shift Paris to 2025 to coincide with the four-year format?

The coronavirus keeps introducing enormous and crucial discussions, and it’s frightening that we don’t know when it’ll stop.

Ryan Honey is a staff writer and host of the Wide Right Podcast.