2020 Tokyo Olympic games to be postponed due to coronavirus

“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” said Pound during 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.”

Pound, who has been a member of the IOC for decades, noted that he thinks the IOC will be announcing its next actions 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.”

When learning about Pound's statement, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said, “It is the right of every IOC member to interpret the decision of the IOC executive board which was announced yesterday.”

On Sunday, IOC President Thomas Bach announced that he will be using the next four weeks to come to a decision about the fate of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were originally scheduled for July 24. Bach noted that they will not be cancelling the games.

The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees said that they will only be sending athletes to the games if they are postponed until 2021.

Australia released a similar statement saying that “an Australian team could not be assembled in the changing circumstances at home and abroad.”

Germany, Brazil and Norway were among the countries whose Olympic Committees urged the IOC to suspend the Olympics.

The Olympics have been cancelled but never suspended. In 1916 the Summer games had to be cancelled due to World War I. The same happened to the Summer and Winter games in 1940 and 1944 during World War II.