The pros and cons of the alternative Olympic dates

With the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games set to be postponed and with new dates to be announced within a month, the organisers of these tournaments can start looking to the future.

There are various potential new dates for the Games to be held.

The main three options are to postpone to October of 2020, to move them to summer of 2021 or to move them to summer of 2022.

Here, we look at the pros and cons of each.

October 2020

This would be a minor postponement, but there is still the uncertainty of how serious the Coronavirus pandemic will be at that point.

Even if the Coronavirus has slowed down by then, there could still be issues in holding the pre-Olympic qualifying tournaments in time.

Summer 2021

This option would give more time for things to return to normality.

One problem with this, though, is that many sports have world championships already scheduled for this year.

Summer 2022

This would give even more time for the Coronavirus to be left in the past.

There would also be the advantage of not having to compete with other major tournaments in that summer, given that this year's World Cup is scheduled for the winter.

A problem, though, is that some athletes who planned to retire after these Olympic Games may not be able to wait for two more years.