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International Olympic Committee leaders and Japanese organized announced Tuesday that the summer’s big sporting event will not be held because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The leaders said in a statement that the Games “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.”
Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, and Thomas Bach, president of the IOC, made the joint statement to postpone the Olympics for the first time in modern history during peacetime. The Olympics were canceled in 1916, 1940 and 1944 because of World Wars I and II.
The Olympics were the biggest event in question for the summer and originally scheduled for July 24-Aug. 9; the Paralympics were slated for Aug. 25-Sept. 6. The Tour de France, the world’s most famous bike race, still is scheduled to run June 27-July 19.
The NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball have put their seasons on hold, but they could return by summer if global health experts consider it safe for people to gather again.
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