One minute Read. Written by Aashna Gayatri Nayyar

The world was looking forward to the 2020 Olympics, but due to COVID 19 all its hopes of watching one of the public’s most favourite sporting events was crushed. Just for your information, in 1896 Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the IOC (International Olympic Committee), which is responsible for organising the Olympic Games.

The first Olympic games was held in Athens in 1896.

The Olympics take place every four years and is an event which everyone keenly looks forward to. In 2020 Tokyo got a second chance to host the summer Olympics (it had hosted the Olympics before in 1964). Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach decided to postpone the 2020 Olympics to the summer of 2021.

Have Olympics been cancelled before?

Yes they have. If we look into the history of Olympics, we see that the Olympics have been cancelled thrice before – in 1916 because of World War I as well as in 1940 and 1944 due to World War II. Though once because of the terror attacks, 1972 Munich Olympics had to be delayed by a day, but it had never been postponed.

How is this affecting Japan?

Postponing the 2020 Olympics has cost Japan dearly.

Many big hotels are struggling because of these cancellations, as there have been many bookings for the Olympics. Smaller hotels and guest houses are in a bigger mess, as they do not have much funds to tide over the loss.

Local bars and restaurants are also staring at huge losses of business that will affect the country’s overall economy. Local businesses are already suffering due the covid-19 pandemic and the postponement of the Olympics is like adding fuel to the fire. Japan’s economy faced an approximate 1.6% dip during the end of 2019 and market observers were depending on the Olympics to help Japan’s economy rebound from this dip.

The Olympic organisers are also facing the pinch. They will have to handle the real estate agents who have sold off apartments in the Olympic village constructed for the games. Some staff members might also lose their job due to cost-cutting, as a lot of money has been lost due to the rescheduling of these games. Brands that have provided money for sponsoring the event will also face some amount of losses.

With Japan’s economy facing two major blows first the Coronavirus and then the postponement of the Olympics the country could be in trouble. How will the Japanese economy revive is the question.

A little about the history of Olympics

The Olympic Games started 3,000 years ago in Greece! They were held in a small town called Olympia to honour the God Zeus – who was the God of the sky, lightning and the thunder. Then the first modern Olympics took place in 1896 in Athens. In 1994, there was a change and the Summer and Winter Olympic Games separated.