Australian Olympic Committee tells athletes to brace themselves for a 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo

Australian athletes will have to wait an extra 12 months to compete at the Games after the Australian Olympic Committee told local sporting bodies the Olympic Games would now be held in the “northern hemisphere summer’’ of 2021.

AUSTRALIAN athletes will have to wait an extra 12 months to compete at the Games after the Australian Olympic Committee told local sporting bodies the Olympic Games would now be held in the “northern hemisphere summer’’ of 2021.

The decision comes just hours after AOC chief executive Matt Carroll called the chances of the Games going ahead on July 24 this year as “untenable’’.

David Pryles, Chief Executive Officer of Softball Australia, said following an AOC tele conference the Games would now be held at “efectively the same time’’ in 2021. “We will plan for July 2021,’’ he said.

Earlier, Carroll was reported as saying: “We have athletes based overseas, training at central locations around Australia as teams and managing their own programs.’’

AOC Chief Executive Matt Carroll addressed the media last week. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

“With travel and other restrictions this becomes an untenable situation,” he said in a statement released earlier today.

A statement from the high profile Swimming Australia team was expected later today following Carroll’s comments.

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Only last week AOC Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman said IOC President Thomas Bach “reminded us of the IOC’s determination to give the athletes their moment, with an Olympic Games in Tokyo, beginning with the Opening Ceremony on July 24th”.

But travel restrictions imposed around Australia and increasingly over the world were set to end speculation about the Olympics being held in 2020.

Last week Carroll said “there are a number of challenges all athletes are facing between now and then, but two stand out’’.

AOC Chief Executive Matt Carroll speaks to the media last week.(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

“First is gaining qualification for the Games with so much disruption to world sport and travel, and second is ensuring they are able to attend the Games free of coronavirus,’’ Carroll said.

“The situation regarding qualification is complex to say the least, with global travel restrictions among many measures that prevent qualifying events anywhere in the world from going ahead right now.”

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Also last week, Carroll gave an insight into the types of plan mooted to try and get Australian athletes to Tokyo for a July 24 start.

These included “extended pre-Games camps in Australia or in Japan’’.

“The option of taking the team direct from the pre-Camps into Tokyo via charter supports that period of pre-Games isolation. We will look at potentially minimising the time they spend in the Olympic Village,’’ Carroll revealed.