Los Angeles (AFP)

The American Gymnastics Federation, based on a survey of its athletes, in turn declared favorable on Monday, due to the coronavirus, to a postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games scheduled for this summer, imitating many other bodies sports.

"After taking into account the responses of the athletes who participated in our survey, 62% of whom say they are in favor of postponing the Games, we add our voice to the choir which calls similarly," said the press release from USA. Gymnastics.

The gymnastics federation is the third major body in the United States to take such a position after the swimming and athletic federations, which in recent days have urged the American Olympic and Paralympic Committee to plead with the IOC not to maintain the Olympics this summer.

What the USOPC has so far refused to do, unlike its Canadian counterpart who announced Sunday evening that he would not send athletes to Tokyo from July 24 to August 9, 2020.

This pressure imposed by these authorities, as well as the International Athletics Federation which also wishes to postpone the Games, prompted the International Olympic Committee to consider this outcome for the first time, after a meeting on Sunday, while giving itself four weeks to take a decision.

The American team, led by discipline star Simone Biles, quadruple gold medalist in Rio in 2016, is one of the strongest nations in gymnastics.

© 2020 AFP