FIRST OUT

Australia and Canada Pull Out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

“It is not safe for our athletes,” the Canadian Olympic Committee said, amid increasing calls for the Games to be delayed.

Canada and Australia have become the first two countries to say they will not send athletes to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics because the coronavirus pandemic has made holding the event impossible. “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,” the Canadian Olympic Committee said. In a similar statement from Australia, the nation’s organizing committee said its board had “unanimously agreed that an Australian Team could not be assembled in the changing circumstances at home and abroad.” The pullouts came shortly before Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, hinted for the first time that the Games, scheduled to begin in July, may be postponed. “If the IOC’s decision means it becomes impossible to hold [the Olympics] in a ‘complete form,’ as I have previously said, then a decision may have to be made to postpone them,” Abe reportedly told Japan’s parliament on Monday.