A runner holding an Olympic torch practices lighting a cauldron during a rehearsal of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics torch relay in Tokyo on Feb 15, 2020. (CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

XI'AN - The schedule for China's 14th National Games in 2021 cannot be confirmed at this stage because of the postponement of this summer's Olympic Games, a local organizing committee official said on Friday.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Tuesday that the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would be postponed by up to one year due to the worldwide coronavirus epidemic.

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(Rescheduling the Olympics) means that China's elites athletes will have to participate in two major events consecutively in 2021

An official from China's General Administration of Sport

Such a move would have consequences for several other competitions, including the National Games, according to Xu Peng, vice director of the Media Service Department of the National Games Organizing Committee.

"(Rescheduling the Olympics) means that China's elites athletes will have to participate in two major events consecutively in 2021. It will be much too difficult for us and the athletes to prepare for the two competitions," an official from China's General Administration of Sport said.

"The General Administration of Sport has called for a video conference this afternoon, in order to work out some solutions to the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics," Xu told Xinhua.

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"The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics will obviously affect us. We will release the schedule of the National Games once solutions are finalized."

Although the National Games' organizers have not yet released an official schedule for next year's event, they revealed in 2019 that "the opening ceremony is set for August 28, 2021 and the closing ceremony on September 9, 2021 (scheduled temporarily)."