What to Know About The Tokyo Olympic 2020?

It was supposed to happen last year! But blame the Covid-19 pandemic rampaging every social occasion. Of many of them, the Tokyo Olympic 2020 is one to face such uncertainties. Nevertheless, the worst is getting better, and finally, it is time to kick off the long-awaited event. Find out all about the Tokyo Olympics 2020 below.

Tokyo 2020 and Covid-19

The story is indeed sad when the Covid-19 Pandemic devoured the entire earth. Eventually, the Tokyo Olympics 2020 being the event victim to come through this unprecedented time. The actual event fell from 24th July to 9th August 2020 in Tokyo, Japan. However, it has been pushed forward from 23rd July to 8th August 2021. Following this, the Paralympics will take place from 24th August to 5th September 2021. Although the event is postponed by a year, it preserves the name Tokyo 2020 for marketing and branding purposes. As a matter of fact, the act of rescheduling the Olympics is the first time in history instead of canceling it. 

The Host City

Tokyo is chosen as the host city for the 2020 Olympics, marking the second time for hosting the Summer Olympics. It so happened during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7th September 2013. Japan, in fact, witnessed a total of four Olympics including the Winter Olympics in 1972 in Sapporo and 1998 in Nagano. It is also the second city in East Asia out of three consecutive Olympics, Pyeongchang being the first and the next in Beijing, 2022

Where are the Tokyo Olympics 2020 venues?

There are different 42 venues for the various competitions for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. Most of them are located within the city, while other additional events will be held anywhere else in Japan. The Heritage Zone, the Tokyo Bay Zone, and other outlying venues are the chief divisions of the venues. Additionally, the Olympics Village is set up between the two zones.

The Olympic Stadium in the Heritage Zone will host the Opening, Closing ceremonies, soccer, track and field events. The zone has a total of 10 venues at the heart of the city. The Tokyo Bay Zone will represent the traditional Tokyo, and thus it is an innovative Heritage Zone counterpart. The area has several artificial islands with futuristic environments. It consists of sixteen spots for the Summer Olympic events. Out of them, it includes the Ariake Gymnastics Center and the Tokyo Aquatic Centre.
Another 16 outlying venues are outside the two main zones. In particular, Sapporo will host marathons, race walking, and other events.

The Participants

With the events at hand, countries all over the world prepare to send in their competitors. What excites the citizens is the championship titles and medals back to their respective home countries. 85,000 athletes are representing 205 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the Refugee Olympic Teams. Further, it decides to include the 101 universality places guaranteed in athletics where NOCs can send participants regardless of qualification.

For the first time, Macedonia will officially enter the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics as North Macedonia. After it ended its naming disputes with Greece in 2018, the IOC immediately recognized its new name sooner. Finally, It was adopted as the Olympic Committee of North Macedonia (NMOC) in February 2020.

The World Anti-doping Agency (WADA) forbade Russia from all international sports for four years following the issues with lab data in 2019. This results from the Russian athletes not participating in Tokyo 2020 in the name of their country. However, after an appeal from a Russian official, the committee heaved off the banning penalty though with certain conditions. The participants from Russia should compete as ‘Neutral Athlete or Neutral Team’ without the country’s name, anthem, or flag. Nevertheless, they permit the players to display the name ‘Russia’ and the flag colors on team uniforms.
Being the first time and the only NOC not to attend the games, the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics will miss out on North Korea’s presence. Concerning the surging situation, South Korea backed off from the event.

What is new? 

Olympics over the years overwhelms everyone with myriads of games and sports. The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics is no different from such spectacular events. New sports in the events include 3×3 basketball, freestyle BMX, and Madison Cycling with other added mixed events. The new policy of IOC allows the host organizing committee to add new sports. The new policy also gives chance to shift the event not only to focus on ‘sport based’ but also ‘event based’. As a consequence, the event will see five new games consisting of baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding. 

The Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics will host 33 sports at 339 events all across 42 venues. Following, the Paralympics will feature 22 sports at 539 events across 21 venues. 

Who Can Come and Witness?

Concerning the ongoing Covid situation, organizers and ministers have decided to prohibit overseas spectators from coming to the event. Furthermore, Japan is under a state of emergency from the 8th of July till the 22nd of August. This situation speculates that international fans are not able to attend the great event. Initially, there is hope for 10000 Japanese fans to attend the event. 

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