Olympics

No Passing of the Torch

Updated Jul. 17, 2020 4:34 p.m. ET

At this point, any sporting event that is scheduled to continue is considered an outlier.

As of yesterday, the biggest outlier was this year's biggest global sporting event: the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

On Thursday, the Olympic flame was lit at Olympia, Greece, kicking off the Olympic torch relay.

But just a day later, the passing of the torch came to an abrupt halt.

During a week where America has canceled its biggest sporting events and suspended play in some of its most popular sports leagues, and the globe's most popular sport has canceled or postponed several of its upcoming events, many had been waiting on a response from the Olympic Games regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

President Donald Trump was the first to address the issue:

But it seemed his suggestion was met with repudiation.

On Thursday, the two Twitter accounts associated with the Tokyo Olympics – @Olympics and @Tokyo2020 – the focus remained on the torch lighting and the importance of the Olympic Games to the city of Tokyo:

Still, it had become noticeable that there was no mention of coronavirus over the course of the day or the week, except from outside media outlets:

Early Friday morning, it was reported that Japanese policymakers were weighing the effects of a cancellation or postponement of the Games:

However, things changed on Friday morning, after hundreds of supporters gathered to watch the torch being passed in Sparta:

Stay tuned for more updates.

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