Canada Announce It Won't Send Athletes To Tokyo Olympics

Coronavirus pandemic: Both COC and CPC have decided not to send team Canada to 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic and have asked the authorities to postpone the Games for one year

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New Delhi: In the wake of Coronavirus pandemic, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee have decided not to send team Canada to Tokyo Olympic 2020, scheduled to start on July 24 this summer, due to the health concerns brought on by the deadly COVID-19. Both committees have urged the authorities to postpone the Games for one year.  "The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Canadian Paralympic Committee (CPC), backed by their Athletes' Commissions, National Sports Organizations and the Government of Canada, have made the difficult decision to not send Canadian teams to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2020," the statement read. "The COC and CPC urgently call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to postpone the games for one year. We offer them our full support in helping navigate all the complexities that rescheduling the Games will bring." "We recognise the inherent complexities around a postponement, nothing is more important than the health and safety of our athletes and the world community. "This is not solely about athlete health – it is about public health. With COVID-19 and the associated risks, it is not safe for our athletes, and the health and safety of their families and the broader Canadian community for athletes to continue training towards these Games," added the statement. IOC says it's not cancelling the Olympics The International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said that a decision on when to hold the Games would be made "within the next four weeks", reports Efe news. Although Bach said a decision on when the Games take place would be made "within the next four weeks," he added that cancelling the Tokyo Games was "not on the agenda". "Human lives take precedence over everything, including the staging of the Games ... We have, as indicated before, been thinking in different scenarios and are adapting them almost day by day," Bach wrote to athletes around the world in an open letter. Over 11,000 people have already lost their lives across the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic.