Paris: The postponed Tokyo Olympic Games will be staged at the same venues under an almost identical schedule as planned before the Games was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March, the Games organizers announced on Friday.
The Tokyo Olympic Games will feature a record 33 sports and 339 events, and all the 42 planned venues will be secured for next year’s Games, the organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori confirmed in a presentation to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session on Friday.
The Athletes Village and the Main Press Center have also been retained for 2021.
John Coates, the head of the IOC coordination commission, said that securing the venues had been a “massive task.”
“We are talking about venues in different ownership,” he said at the IOC session.
“We are talking also of securing the Olympic village which has been constructed by a consortium of 11 different companies, who have agreed to push back the date when will be able to hand over the apartments to the public.”
The competition will kick off with softball at 0900 hrs on July 21, two days before the opening ceremony, at Fukushima Azuma Baseball stadium. preliminary football matches will start on the same day.
The first medal event – the women’s shooting 10m air rifle – will start at 0830 hrs on July 24 and a total of 11 medal events, across six more other sports (archery, cycling, fencing, judo, taekwondo and weightlifting), will also be held that day.
Urban sports, one of the highlights of the Games, will be held in the Aomi and Ariake areas throughout almost the entire period of the Games.
The marathon and race walking events will remain in the northern city of Sapporo after being controversially moved out of Tokyo because of the anticipated scorching summer heat.
The organizing committee also said the previously purchased tickets will still be valid for next year, and reimbursement will be provided upon request, although details have yet to be decided.
Earlier this week, IOC president Thomas Bach has said the IOC remained “fully committed” to staging the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 and was considering “multiple scenarios” to ensure the safety of all participants. (UNI)
