The International Skating Union(ISU) World Figure Skating Championships 2020 scheduled to open next week in Montreal has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The ISU announced on Wednesday that Canadian authorities had informed them that they intended to cancel their hosting of the event.
Noting that the spread of COVID-19 had rendered impossible a delay of the event by a few weeks, the ISU said it will "evaluate in cooperation with all stakeholders whether the championships could possibly be held later in the year, but in any case not before October 2020."
The most prestigious figure skating event in the world after the Winter Olympics, the ISU World Figure Skating Championship had been previously cancelled only three times since its launch in 1896. This is the first time it has been cancelled due to disease.
Several South Korean skaters were scheduled to compete, including Cha Jun-hwan in men's singles, You Young and Kim Ye-lim in women's singles and Min Yura and Daniel Eaton in ice dancing.