2020 Games postponement signals growing power shift from IOC to athletes

Japanese organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided today that the Tokyo Olympic Games would start on July 23, 2021, and run until Aug 8, 2021 FILE PHOTO: The Olympic rings are pictured in front of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Lausanne, Switzerland, March 24, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tweeting from her Toronto couch two weeks ago, six-time Olympian Hayley Wickenheiser had two words for the International Olympic Committee, which had yet to postpone the Tokyo Summer Games amid the coronavirus pandemic: "Insensitive and irresponsible."

Days later the IOC acquiesced, delaying the Olympics until July 2021 and sparking what some say could be a permanent shift in power away from the hierarchical governing body to athletes.