The Olympics that were set to start July 24th of this year in Tokyo have been officially postponed to a later date in 2021.

This is the first such delay of the games in its 124-year history.

Japan invested 12 billion dollars in the games, however, with athletes voicing their concerns regarding training while in lockdown the decision was made official Tuesday.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach ultimately pointed to pushing the Olympics to 2021.

Thomas Bach said, “We have been discussing the seriousness of the pandemic of the coronavirus and most importantly the devastating effect it has on so many peoples’ lives around the entire globe. The World Health Organization speaks of the acceleration of the spreading of the virus so we were addressing this situation and came to the conclusion that, in order to safeguard the health of the athletes and everybody involved in the Olympic Games, that we have to postpone the Olympics and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 to the year 2021, with the aim to have it there at the latest in summer time 2021.”

The Olympic flame, which was already lit at Olympia in Greece and taken to Japan for a now-cancelled torch relay, will stay in the host nation as a symbol of hope.