Coronavirus: Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for summer 2021

Games will start on 23 July 2021 and run until 8 August, with the Paralympics set to take place shortly thereafter

The Tokyo Olympics will start on 23 July 2021 and run until 8 August, it was announced on Monday.

The Games, which were originally due to take place this summer, were postponed last week due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.​

Yoshiro Mori, president of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, said: “IOC (International Olympic Committee) President Thomas Bach and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee held a conference call today to discuss in detail the revised dates of the Tokyo 2020 Games.

“Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Hashimoto Seiko and Tokyo Governor Koike joined the call. I proposed that the Games should be hosted between July and August 2021 and I really appreciate that President Bach, having discussed this proposal with the various international sport federations and other related organisations, kindly accepted my proposal.

“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 summer vacation in Japan would be preferable.”

A statement sent out by the IOC confirmed that all athletes already qualified – and all quota places already assigned – for the 2020 Games would remain unchanged.

“In terms of transportation, 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 one year later than planned, in the summer of 2021,” Mori said.

The Tokyo Paralympic Games have also been rescheduled for summer 2021, taking place between 24 August and 5 September.

“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,” Mori added.

Bach, president of the IOC, said: “I want to thank the International Federations for their unanimous support and Continental Associations of National Olympic Committees for the great partnership and their support in the consultation process over the last few days.

“I would also like to thank the IOC Athletes’ Commission, with whom we have been in constant contact.

“With this announcement, 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.”

The IOC added that the priorities when making the decision to postpone the Games were to protect the health of the athletes and everyone else involved, support the containment of Covid-19, safeguard the interests of the athletes and Olympic sport, and avoid disruption to the global international sports calendar as much as possible.