IOC Member Says 2020 Tokyo Olympics Will Be Postponed

Photo credit: curiosity.com

Derek Levendusky, AWW Staff

Though there hasn’t been an official announcement yet as of Monday evening, veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA Today’s Christine Brennan that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be postponed.

“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound told Brennan in 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, 78 years old, has been involved in the IOC for decades and is currently its senior-most member. He also told Brennan that the Tokyo Games will likely be moved to 2021.

Executive director of USA Wrestling Rich Bender told FloWrestling’s Mark Bader in an interview last Friday, talking about the possibility of postponement, “There’s a lot of moving parts. I mean, for the athlete’s sake, we all know what goes into the preparation. It’s a lifetime of commitment, and we owe it to them to make sure that we’re doing everything to try to provide that opportunity.”

The Last Chance Qualifier and the Olympic Trials Qualifier have already been postponed. There are currently no plans to reschedule and likely won’t be until there’s clarity in the direction of the coronavirus social distancing period. “Only 57% of the qualifying is done for the Olympic Games,” Bender pointed out to FloWrestling, speaking of all Olympic sports. “Think about how you would even fill the Games if you were to make a decision next week [on postponement]. How do you make it, not only a safe environment, but a fair environment?”

Pound told Brennan that the details of the postponement will be worked out within the next month, and that he expects the IOC to announce their next steps soon.