For the second time, Jill Biden will head to the Olympic Games to lead the U.S. delegation.
But for the Tokyo Games, she’ll do so without her husband, President Joe Biden. The couple led the delegation for the Winter Games in Vancouver, Canada, in 2010 when Joe Biden was vice president.
The Tokyo Games, which open July 23 after a yearlong postponement, will have no fans in the stands in the wake of a state of emergency declared because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last month that the president would not attend the Olympics but instead send a U.S. delegation as has traditionally been done.
President George W. Bush in 2008 became the first U.S. president to attend an Olympics abroad, when he went to China for the Beijing Games. It has not happened since.
President Barack Obama did not attend the Games in Vancouver in 2010, in London in 2012, in Sochi, Russia in 2014 or in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
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Delegations were sent, and at the London Games, first lady Michelle Obama led the delegation. In 2010, the Bidens led the U.S. delegation to Canada.
President Donald Trump sent a delegation led by Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, to the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. First daughter Ivanka led the U.S. delegation for the closing ceremony.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
