GENEVA — The 2022 Dakar Youth Olympics were postponed by four years on Wednesday, in further fallout from delaying the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said the decision was discussed two days ago in a telephone conversation with Senegal President Macky Sall. It means Africa will have to wait until 2026 for the continent’s first Olympic hosting duty.
“This was really too heavy workload for everybody,” Bach said during an online news conference, citing the 2020 Tokyo Olympics now opening one year later.
The Beijing Winter Olympics are due to be held in February 2022.
“We would have had to master five [Olympic] Games in just three years,” Bach said.
Bach dismissed a suggestion that a similar postponement for a full four-year Olympic cycle was an option for Tokyo, if the global health crisis persists.
The situations “cannot be compared in any way,” the IOC leader said. “We are and we remain fully committed to celebrate Tokyo 2020 next year in July and August.”
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