Tokyo Olympics postponed for a year

IN Bureau

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and the government of Japan today agreed new dates for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in 2021.

The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will now be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021. They also agreed on new dates for the Paralympic Games, which will be celebrated from August 24 until September 5, 2021.

The leaderships of the key parties came together via telephone conference earlier today, joined by IOC president Thomas Bach, Tokyo 2020 president Mori Yoshirō, Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko, and Olympic and Paralympic Minister Hashimoto Seiko, and agreed on the new schedule.

This decision was taken based on three main considerations and in line with the principles established by the IOC Executive Board (EB) on March 17 and confirmed at its meeting today.

These were supported by all the International Summer Olympic Sports Federations (IFs) and all the National Olympic Committees (NOCs):

1. To protect the health of the athletes and everyone involved, and to support the containment of the COVID-19 virus.

2. To safeguard the interests of the athletes and of Olympic sport.

3. The global international sports calendar.

These new dates give the health authorities and all involved in the organisation of the Games the maximum time to deal with the constantly changing landscape and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new dates, exactly one year after those originally planned for 2020 (Olympic Games: 24 July to 9 August 2020 and Paralympic Games: 25 August to 6 September 2020), also have the added benefit that any disruption that the postponement will cause to the international sports calendar can be kept to a minimum, in the interests of the athletes and the IFs.

Additionally, they will provide sufficient time to finish the qualification process. The same heat mitigation measures as planned for 2020 will be implemented.

In a call on March 24, based on information provided by the WHO at the time, IOC president Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe concluded that the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 would be held in their complete form and not later than summer 2021. The Prime Minister reiterated that the government of Japan stands ready to fulfill its responsibility for hosting these successful Games..