Video: Tokyo Summer Olympics to take place during summer of 2021
The Olympics are the greatest athletic show on the face of the earth — and fans and athletes alike will have to wait 364 more days before seeing the greatest athletes on earth compete.
With the COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, pandemic sweeping the world, the International Olympic Committee, amidst mounting pressure from USA Swimming and other sports and countries, decided to delay the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Less than a week after that decision had been made, the IOC put out a statement saying that the Games will resume from July 23, 2021 to August, 8 2021 in Tokyo — a welcome sight for all involved.
“The schedule for the games is key to preparing for the games,” Tokyo organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori said. “This will only accelerate our progress.”
There were originally talks of postponing the Olympics to the spring, but that was quickly axed due to the spread of COVID-19 and its unpredictability about how to combat it. The committee wanted to make sure that athletes had enough time to not only qualify but properly train for the Games.
“These new dates give the health authorities and all involved in the organization of the Games the maximum time to deal with the constantly changing landscape and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the IOC said. “The new dates ... also have the added benefit that any disruption that the postponement will cause to the international sports calendar can be kept to a minimum, in the interests of the athletes and the IFs.”
The decision to also keep the Games scheduled for the summer rather than the spring was in large part because it clashed with the NBA, MLB and MLS — while also conflicting with European soccer, the largest athletic following outside of the Olympic Games.
The Paralympics were also rescheduled, now officially taking place from Aug. 24 through Sept. 5.