On March 30, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and the Government of Japan agreed on new dates for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, in 2021.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will be celebrated from July 23 to August 8, 2021. The Paralympic Games will be celebrated from August 24 to September 5, 2021.
Photo by IOC.
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, 2020 and confirmed at its meeting today, March 30. These were supported by all the International Summer Olympic Sports Federations (IFs) and all the National Olympic Committees (NOCs):
- To protect the health of the athletes and everyone involved, and to support the containment of the COVID-19 virus.
- To safeguard the interests of the athletes and of Olympic sport.
- The global international sports calendar.
These new dates give health authorities and all involved in the organization 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 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. The same heat mitigation measures as planned for 2020 will be implemented.
The President of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, Mori Yoshirō, said: “A certain amount of time is required for the selection and qualification of athletes and for their training and preparation, and the consensus was that staging the rescheduled Games during the summer vacation in Japan would be preferable. In terms of transport, arranging volunteers and the provision of tickets for those in Japan and overseas, as well as allowing for the COVID-19 situation, we think that it would be better to reschedule the Games to one year later than planned, in the summer of 2021. Notwithstanding the postponement of the Olympic and Paralympic Games for the first time in history, and various other issues that have already been highlighted, the event schedule is the cornerstone of future preparations, and I am convinced that taking this decision promptly will help speed up future preparations. I would like to thank all the stakeholders, including the host city Tokyo and the Government of Japan, for their hard work during this short period. The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee will continue to work hard for the success of next year’s Games.”
It has previously been confirmed that all athletes already qualified and quota places already assigned for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will remain unchanged.
With this announcement, athletes are now able to move forward with training plans and cast aside some of the uncertainty surrounding the Olympic Games that they have worked tirelessly to qualify for.
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