Tuesday 24 March 2020 16:34, UK
Veteran IOC member Dick Pound has revealed plans are now being made for the Tokyo Olympics to be postponed and are likely to be rescheduled for 2021.
Speaking to USA Today, Pound said details will be worked out in the next four weeks with the Games most likely to be moved to 2021.
Pound said: "On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided.
"The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know."
IOC President Thmas Bach said on Sunday that he was going to take four weeks to decide on whether this summer's Games will go ahead.
But Canadian Pound expects decisions to come sooner: "It will come in stages. We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense."
However, IOC spokesperson Mark Adams told the American newspaper that "It is the right of every IOC member to interpret the decision of the IOC executive board which was announced yesterday."
Bach wrote a letter over the weekend admitting the IOC were now exploring other ways to stage the games, which included a postponement.
The chair of the British Olympic Association Hugh Robertson has already told Sky Sports News that Team GB are unlikely to travel to Tokyo if the Games are held this summer.
