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Tuesday 31 March 2020

The 2020 Olympics will be held in 2021 but ...



The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have been rescheduled to run from July 23 to August 8, 2021.

Despite being switched from June to 2021, the Games will retain the name Tokyo 2020 for marketing and branding purposes - a piece of bizarre logic of which the Monty Python.troupe would be proud.

The 16th Summer Paralympic Games are now scheduled to take place in Tokyo from August 24 to September 5, 2021.

Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said, with trademark Olympic hyperbole, that the Games could provide a 'light at the end of a dark tunnel of humanity' for the world.

He said the new dates "exactly one year after those originally planned for 2020 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."

Bach added: "This is a huge challenge. It is unprecedented. We don't have a blueprint. We have no experts to refer to.

"Now, we have to work and we're working already with the international federations.

"We have to take the qualification into consideration — what it means for the athletes.

"We have to see, and in particular the organising committee will have to see, whether the sports venues are still available. What is happening with all the installations which have already been accomplished for the games in 2020."

So, thanks to the coronavirus, we have sporting chaos all round - with several Olympic sports having world championships scheduled for 2021 that will have to be rescheduled.

And what of the hotel rooms that have already been booked for conventions in 2021 but will now be needed by the Olympics?

For now there are more questions than answers.

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