Almost three-quarters of the 300 US athletes who took part in a virtual town hall with US Olympic officials support delaying the 2020 Tokyo Games, USA Today reported Sunday.
The poll followed calls to postpone the Olympics due to the global coronavirus pandemic by USA Swimming and USA Track & Field - the federations set to send the most American athletes to Japan in an expected delegation of more than 600 competitors. In all, 70 percent of the athletes supported a postponement with another 23 percent saying it would depend on the consequences of such a move, according to details of the weekend poll given to the newspaper by a member of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) Athletes Advisory Council who participated in the meeting. When asked if they supported the Tokyo Olympics going ahead as scheduled from July 24-August 9, 41 percent replied they did not back that idea with 34% percent saying the matter was complicated and more information was needed.