The postponed Olympic Games will now begin on July 23 next year and run until Aug. 8, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee said on Monday, as the coronavirus pandemic made it impossible to plan and prepare for them properly this year.

The Games were postponed last week - the first such delay in the 124-year history of the modern Olympics. The move was a huge blow for Japan, which invested $13 billion in the run-up to the event and raised $3 billion from domestic sponsors.

Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, confirmed the new dates after he made the decision with the International Olympic Committee. Mori said the Paralympic Games would run from Aug. 24-Sep. 5.

“The Tokyo Olympics Games and the successful delivery of these Games will be how we overcome all the problems that the world is facing and that the Olympics could be a symbol for this,” Mori said. “These Games are going to have great historical significance.”

The IOC and Japanese government succumbed to intense pressure from athletes and sporting bodies around the world last Tuesday by agreeing to push back the Games because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic had already led to many sporting events around the world being delayed or canceled. After weeks of insisting the Olympics would go ahead, organizers bowed to what many said was the inevitable and delayed what is the world’s premier sporting gathering.

Sporting bodies including the World Athletics association, the International Triathlon Union, and FINA, the international swimming federation, all followed up with statements of support for the delay.