Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics: New dates confirmed for 2021

Ryan Crouser
Ryan Crouser

The Tokyo Olympic Games will start on 23 July 2021 and will run to 8 August after it was postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) official board met on Monday to settle on the choice.

The Olympics will be called Tokyo 2020 in spite of occurring in 2021.

The Paralympic Games was to start on 25 August, 2020, will presently be between 24 August and 5 September, 2021.

IOC president Thomas Bach stated:

“I am confident that, working together with the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Japanese Government, and all our stakeholders, we can master this unprecedented challenge.

“Humankind currently finds itself in a dark tunnel. These Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 can be a light at the end of this tunnel.”

International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons added: “When the Paralympic Games do take place in Tokyo next year, they will be an extra-special display of humanity uniting as one, a global celebration of human resilience and a sensational showcase of sport.

“With the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games 512 days away, the priority for all those involved in the Paralympic movement must be to focus on staying safe with their friends and family during this unprecedented and difficult time.”

The choice to defer the two occasions was taken to secure the wellbeing of the competitors and everybody included, and to help the regulation of the Covid-19 infection.

The new dates likewise mulled over the remainder of the worldwide games scheduled after the men’s football European Championship was delayed to the summer of 2021.

Coordinators trust the postpone will permit adequate time to complete the capability procedure which will follow a similar relief estimates got ready for 2020.

Bought tickets would be legitimate for rescheduled occasions or a discount could be mentioned when the new dates were set, coordinators recently affirmed.

On 24 March, Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo said the Games would be held in their “total structure” and no later than summer 2021.

It is the first run through in the Olympic Games’ 124-year current history that they have been deferred, however, they were dropped by and large in 1916 in view of World War One and again in 1940 and 1944 for World War Two. Cold War blacklists influenced the summer Games in Moscow and Los Angeles in 1980 and 1984 separately.

Tokyo 2020 sorting out board of trustees president Yoshiro Mori said he had proposed the 23 July to 8 August time period to the IOC, and that Bach had concurred, following meetings with the universal games organizations.

“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,” Mori said.

“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.”

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