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THE TOKYO 2020 Olympics have been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound confirmed the Games will be held at a later date, most likely in 2021.

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5 The 2020 Olympics, which were set to be held in Tokyo in July, have been postponed, IOC member Pound has confirmed

The final details over when the Games - due to start on Friday, July 24 - will be held are to be worked out over the next four weeks.

Pound told USA Today: "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.

"It will come in stages. We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense."

Asked about Pound's comments, an IOC spokesman said: "Well, as we announced yesterday, we are looking at scenarios."

Olympic Committee chairman Thomas Bach said on Sunday that he has ruled out cancelling the Games altogether.

The decision to postpone the Olympics comes after intense pressure from competing countries, with Australia and Canada pulling out before today's announcement.

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British Olympic Association chairman Hugh Robertson said just hours before Pound's comments that Team GB would not be going if Covid-19 carries on as expected.

He said: "We can't see any way that this can go ahead as things are constituted. I expect we will be joining Canada and Australia shortly."

Events have moved rapidly.

Just last week, World Athletics president and British Olympic hero Seb Coe insisted it was too early to make a decision on the Games.

But Coronavirus has continued to spread, decimating the entire sporting calendar.

Euro 2020 has been pushed back a year, there remains total uncertainty over the future of the Premier League and every other sport around the world has been affected in some way.

5 Brit Olympic hero Coe and Bach have been holding talks over whether to delay the Games in light of the coronavirus pandemic Credit: EPA

This is the first time the Olympics have ever been postponed.

The 1916 Games were cancelled because of World War I and the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were called off due to World War II.

There were boycotts for three straight Olympics from 1976 - but the event always went ahead as scheduled.

SunSport told you how the Tokyo Games would prove a disastrous breeding ground for coronavirus - which has killed 335 people in the UK and more than 15,000 around the world since starting in Wuhan, China, at the end of last December.

The biggest dilemma Olympics chiefs face now is deciding when to hold the rescheduled Games.

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If it pushed back to just later this year, then athletes and organisers might still be worried about contracting coronavirus.

Moreover, governments could still be advising self-isolation and social distancing.

On that basis, it appears 2021 is the most likely option, although that brings difficulties too because it will clash with the World Athletics Championships.