For the first time in history, the world's premier sporting event has been deferred for up to a year.

Today, the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee made it official.

However, there has been an expectation that the Games would be delayed ever since Canada became the first country to withdraw on March 22 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 375,000 cases of COVID-19 around the world.

"In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community," the IOC and the organizing committee said in a joint statement.

The announcement came after a conference call between IOC president Thomas Bach, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and other top political and sports officials.

In 2013, the IOC awarded the 2020 Games to Tokyo over Istanbul. A third city, Madrid, was rejected in the first round of balloting.

Abe was hoping that the Olympics would provide a shot in the arm to his country's economy.

It's in rough shape as a result of an aging population, the coronavirus, and years of tepid growth.

Citing figures from JP Morgan, Reuters reported that Japan will take a US$10-billion hit from not hosting the Olympics this year.

Japan has the world's third-largest economy with a gross domestic product of US$5.2 trillion.