After weeks of con cancellations, festival postponements, and movie premiere push-backs, the coronavirus may have just claimed its most major event. USA Today reports that the 2020 Olympic Games—set to begin in Tokyo on July 24—will be postponed, most likely until 2021.
The news comes courtesy of International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound, because whoever is in charge of this insane simulation has officially lost all sense of subtlety.
“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound told USA Today 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 added: “It will come in stages. We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”
The Olympic Committee has been hesitant to make this decision, with IOC president Thomas Bach completely ruling out the possibility of canceling the games. In a lengthy open letter to the athletes published on March 22, Bach wrote of the steps being taken alongside the World Health Organization to decide the next move:
Cancellation of the Olympic Games would destroy the Olympic dream of 11,000 athletes from all 206 National Olympic Committees, from the IOC Refugee Olympic Team, most likely for the Paralympic athletes, and for all the people who are supporting you as coaches, doctors, officials, training partners, friends and family. Cancellation would not solve any problem and would help nobody. Therefore it is not on our agenda.
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A decision about a postponement today could not determine a new date for the Olympic Games because of the uncertain developments in both directions: an improvement, as we are seeing in a number of countries thanks to the severe measures being taken, or a deteriorating situation in other countries.
For more on how the coronavirus is affecting the entertainment industry, here is our constantly-updating list of all the events and projects postponed or canceled so far.