On the evening of 11th Geneva time, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially announced that the outbreak of the New Coronavirus epidemic had become a global “Pandemic”. The data released by the WHO today showed that the new crown virus epidemic has swept through at least 114 countries and regions, causing more than 118,000 infections and more than 4,000 deaths.
All sports activities had been affected by the New Coronavirus epidemic, NBA has postponed the season, but they did after the NCAA announced that the Final Four March Madness Tournament would be played in empty arenas. The National Hockey League San Jose sharks and the NB Golden State Warriors both announced that they will not be playing their upcoming home games with fans in attendance, IJF and JUA suspended all olympic qualification Judo events, WBPF and ABBF cancelled or postponed their important international bodybuilding events.
Although the Tokyo Marathon in Japan did not cancel the event, but the Volkswagen Group was cancelled. More than 37,500 Volkswagen Marathon runners missed the Tokyo Marathon, leaving only 200 elites. J-League officials also stated that according to the progress of the situation, J-League may also be postponed or held in empty city, but in order to ensure the smooth holding of the Tokyo Olympic Games, all the matches so far will be played according to the original schedule.
The most concerned is the upcoming Tokyo Olympics on July 24th. Although the official attitude of Japan is firm, but 60% of the Japanese people call for the “cancel the Olympics”. Whether the world’s largest sports event will be held on schedule requires further observation. Everybody knows about the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, but few people knew that the 18th Olympic Games in 1964 was not the first Olympic Games hosted by Japan. As early as 1936, Tokyo once obtained the right to host the Twelfth Olympic Games, but it was cancelled due to the Sino-Japanese War. If the epidemic cannot be effectively controlled, the Tokyo Olympics may become the first Olympic Games affected by the epidemic in the history of the Olympics, and Tokyo will also be the city where the two Olympic Games are cancelled.
