International Olympic Committee Announces new Dates for Tokyo Olympics

Posted by: Watch Athletics


The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Monday new dates for the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and Paralympics.

The Tokyo Olympics will start July 24, 2021, and will conclude on August 8, 2021, while the Paralympics will begin August 24, 2021, and end 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 17 March 2020 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 IOC said.

Despite the rescheduling, the next year's Olympic games will still be known as the Tokyo 2020 games, the IOC said last week.

The track and field governing body, World Athletics, welcomed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games new dates. 

"We support the new 2021 dates for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games announced today by the Japanese organisers and the IOC. This gives our athletes the time they need to get back into training and competition." the World Athletics said.

The World Athletics says that the Oregon 2021 World Athletics Championships will be postponed until 2022.

"Everyone needs to be flexible and compromise and to that end we are now working with the organisers of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon on new dates in 2022 for our World Athletics Championships." World Athletics added.

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