Interview: Translating IOC-speak means Games moving to 2021, says Pound

FILE PHOTO: International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound, poses in his offices in Montreal, Quebec, Canada February 26, 2020. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

(Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) speaks its own language and no-one understands it better than senior member Dick Pound, who told Reuters on Monday that a communique setting out a four-week deadline to decide the fate of the 2020 Tokyo Games translated into a postponement.

While no official decision has been taken, Pound explained that the message coming out of an emergency IOC meeting on Sunday was clear -- the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, set to run July 24 to Aug. 9, will not be held this year due to the coronavirus crisis and will be postponed until 2021.