Even though nearly half of the athletes have already qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and will be able to carry that qualification forward to 2021 – the International Olympic Committee has revised the dates for the 2021 edition.
From Inside the Games
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has revised the qualification deadline for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after the Games were postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its qualification system principles, updated following confirmation of the new dates for the Games and a copy of which has been seen by insidethegames, the IOC said the qualification period would end on June 29, 2021.
The date is exactly a week before the final entry deadline of July 5, 18 days before the Olympics are due to open on July 23.
In a separate letter to National Olympic Committees, the IOC said it hoped to finalise the adapted qualification system later this month.
“We understand that at this time these are unlikely to include the full details on the dates and locations of the specified events, recognising that these will follow later as the impacts of COVID-19 and its related restrictions become clearer,” the IOC said in the letter.
“We aim to finalise the adapted qualification systems by mid-April, with the details on specific events to follow when available.”
The IOC has also told International Federations to use their original qualification systems where possible after numerous events had been cancelled or postponed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“This principle encourages IFs to follow a like-for-like approach by replacing those lost opportunities that were allocating quotas with the same number of events,” the IOC added.
