The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Friday that all athletes who qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic will keep their spots for the rearranged Games next year.
The IOC and Japanese organisers postponed the July 24-August 9 event earlier this week but confirmed that those among the 11,000 athletes set to compete in Tokyo who had already earned their spot would keep it.
The IOC also said that the amount of spots allocated for each sport at the Games would remain the same next year.
"The 57 per cent that are qualified do remain in place and the goal is to maintain the same athletes quotas across the different sports," an IOC official said.
The virus has wreaked havoc with sports schedules and forced the cancellation of many Olympic qualifiers across many sports. Athletes have also been restricted in their training due to measures taken to stop the spread.
Though a huge blow to Japan, which has invested $12 billion (Dh44bn) in the run-up to the Games, the decision to postpone was a relief to thousands of athletes fretting over training with the world heading into lockdown to fight a disease that has killed thousands of people.