It has been announced that the Tokyo Olympic Games will begin to take place on the 23rd of July, 2021, after being postponed last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The summer games is planned to run until the 8th of August.
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board met and made the decision for the new date on Monday.
Rather strangely, the summer games will still be called Tokyo 2020 despite taking place in 2021.
IOC president Thomas Bach said:
“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 decision to postpone both the Olympic and Paralympic games was taken in order to protect the health of the athletes, specatators and everyone else involved in the production of the events, and to support the containment of the COVID-19 virus.
It has already been confirmed that all of the athletes that had already qualified for their events and the select quota places previously assigned will remain unchanged.
The confirmation of the new dates next summer, also took into consideration the rest of the global sports calendar after Euro 2020 was also postponed until the summer of 2021.
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