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During a conference call on Friday, March 27, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) let national Olympic committees know that within three weeks, they will be informed of the new dates for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The Games will be re-branded as the 2021Tokyo Olympic Games.
Apparently, the Games will take place before the end of summer 2021.
When the Games will happen is a very important piece of the global competition schedule for all events, organizers, athletes, sponsors, and volunteers. Some national qualifications could still take place in advance of the Games; however, the IOC said that the more than 5,000 athletes that have already qualified for 2020 will remain qualified for 2021. Of the more than 11,000 athletes that compete, 57 per cent had qualified for 2020.
There will be a whole cascade of events being planned and the process to creating a new calendar will be complicated.
The 2021 Games are most likely to happen at the same approximate time as the 2020 Games were scheduled to start, which was July 24. There is a small possibility they will happen earlier in the summer and almost no chance – but plausible – for a spring edition.
The domino effect of the change includes the possibility that the World Athletics Track and Field Championships could move to 2022 – and they should. President of the World Athletics Sebastian Coe implied as much.
Another possible side-effect is the investment in the Athlete’s Village, which will be put up for sale to the public post-Games. Perhaps not everyone will be able to follow through with their purchase.
According to www.worldometers.com/coronavirus/ as of this writing, there have been 645,054 Covid-19 positive test results, 29,941 deaths and 139,545 people have recovered.
