Summer Olympics in Tokyo to start on July 23, 2021

[TOKYO] The Summer Olympics in Tokyo, pushed back a year because of the coronavirus pandemic only after Olympic officials and Japanese organizsers bowed to widespread pressure, will now open July 23, 2021, Tokyo 2020 organizsers said Monday.

The games will run through Aug 8.

Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee president, told sports federations on a conference call a short while before the announcement that the date was picked to give organisers the maximum time to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus. When he called for a show of support on the call, it was unanimous.

The postponement has set off an array of complex planning decisions for the IOC and the Tokyo organisers. The changes must take into account an array of stakeholders whose needs differ wildly, including athletes desperate to know how and when to resume training, and broadcast and commercial partners who will recast their own campaigns.

The Tokyo 2020 organising committee on Monday announced measures aimed at reducing some of the disruption. It said that the thousands of volunteers who had been offered positions would be retained for next year and that tickets remained valid, but full refunds would be given to those who could no longer attend.

The IOC had said a decision was likely to take weeks, but it ultimately came to a faster resolution after talks with Japanese authorities, athlete groups, commercial partners and sports organizations whose plans had been left in limbo.

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The announcement came after a flurry of conference calls over the weekend stretched into Monday as the IOC moved to get all its stakeholders in alignment. Less than two weeks ago, the head of the Olympic committee was insisting that the games would go on as scheduled, even after a pandemic had been declared.

"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," Mr Bach said in a statement Monday.

By holding the Olympics at essentially the same dates, just a year later, organisers will avoid competing with most major sporting leagues in Europe and the United States when they are in the heart of their seasons.

NYTimes