Yesterday, March 24th, the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games announced the postponement of the Games to the year 2021.
Less than 24 hours, the ripple effect of the groundbreaking decision is being felt, as more Olympic-related events are being cancelled or postponed to align with the new timing.
Just today, Tokyo 2020 has decided to postpone the Olympic Torch Relay, which was scheduled to start on March 26th.
“We will announce revised dates for the Torch Relay after the new schedule for the Tokyo 2020 Games has been fixed, and renew our preparations for a vigorous Grand Start event that will bring people together again,” reads the statement.
“We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our partner organisations, each prefectural taskforce and the many other stakeholders who have made such great efforts to prepare for the Relay, and we ask for your continued cooperation. We will consider measures that allow torchbearers who were selected to run in the now postponed event to be given priority in the selection process for the new Torch Relay.”
The Olympic flame had earlier been lit in a ceremony which took place in Ancient Olympia, Greece on March 12th. Thomas Bach, President of the IOC, Prokopios Pavlopoulos, President of the Hellenic Republic, as well as Olympic Committee President Spyros Capralos were