The official statement on the 30th revealed that the decision was based on three considerations: first, to protect the health of athletes and all Olympic participants and to support actions to fight against the new Crown epidemic; Second, protect the interests of athletes and Olympic events; Third, the global sports calendar.
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 30 (reporter Ji Ye, Prince Jiang) The International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Japanese government reached an agreement on the 30th, the postponed Tokyo Olympic Games will be held from July 23 to August 8, 2021, and the Paralympic Games will be held from August 24 to September 5. This was postponed for a whole year with the original Tokyo Olympic Games (July 24 to August 9, 2020) and the Paralympic Games (August 25 to September 6).
On March 24, the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee decided that the Tokyo Olympic Games would be rescheduled to the summer after 2020, but not later than 2021. In the past week, IOC President Bach once said that the Olympic Games will be held no later than the summer of 2021, which does not mean that the time is limited to next summer. Therefore, there are also rumors that the Olympic Games will be held in the spring of Japan, namely the “cherry blossom season. But why did you finally decide to postpone it for a whole year?
The official statement on 30th revealed that the decision was based on three considerations: first, to protect the health of athletes and all Olympic participants and to support actions to fight against the new Crown epidemic; Second, protect the interests of athletes and Olympic events; Third, the global sports calendar.
The statement specifically talks about three reasons:
first, with the confirmation of the new date, the next series of preparatory work needs to reverse the construction period according to this time, this means that the epidemic situation must be effectively controlled at that time. Compared with the extension to next spring, the extension of one year provides more sufficient time for the global “anti-epidemic. When the Olympic Games begin next year, all parties hope that human beings can usher in the moment of defeating the epidemic.
Secondly, if it is only postponed until next spring, it will conflict with professional sports events. As we all know, May and June are the peaks of European football, NBA and other events. If the Olympic Games are also held at that time, it is too difficult for sponsors, broadcasters and other parties to coordinate their interests. The extension for a whole year avoids the peak of professional sports, and also extends the European Football Championship and America Cup for the same year (both events were held from June 11 to July 11, 2021) wait to pass.
After the new date was confirmed, the world field Federation immediately issued a statement expressing its support for the new time determined by the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, he also said that he would postpone the world track and field championships scheduled to be held in August 6-15 to 2022. Previously, FINA also said that the Fukuoka swimming world championship in 2021 would be held on an elective basis. It can be seen that in the face of this unprecedented crisis, the Olympic family chose to join hands to meet the challenges.
Third, the extension of a whole year also leaves enough time for the Olympic qualifier. The International Federation of individual sports and athletes can continue to organize and prepare for the qualifier according to the original plan of 2020.
Yoshiro Mori, chairman of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, revealed the details of the date. He said: “The President of the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee held a conference call today to discuss the date of the Tokyo Olympic Games. Japanese Olympic Minister Yamako Hashimoto and Tokyo governor Kochi Zyko also joined the meeting. I propose that the Olympic Games should be held in July and August 2021. I am very grateful to President Bach. After communicating with different international individual Sports Federation and other relevant organizations, he accepted my proposal.”
The 82-year-old former Japanese prime minister also said: “It takes some time for athletes to advance to the Olympic Games and prepare for the training, so the consensus is that it is a better choice to hold the Olympic Games during Japan’s summer holidays. In terms of transportation, rescheduling volunteers, providing tickets for Japan and other countries (regions) and coping with the epidemic, we think it is a better plan to postpone one year than originally planned. Although the Olympic and Paralympic Games have been postponed for the first time in history, and many other problems have already emerged, the schedule of the event is still the cornerstone of the preparation work in the future. I firmly believe that quickly determining the date will help speed up the preparation work in the future.”
The governor of Tokyo xiaochi Baizi said: “The preparation work under the new date will proceed smoothly, because this time period is in line with the original competition schedule, and at the same time, it is in line with ticketing, venue personnel, the time of volunteers and transportation arrangements also corresponds.”