Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for 2021: Opens on July 23, ends on Aug 8

The Tokyo Olympics will open up subsequent yr in the similar time slot scheduled for this year’s video games. Tokyo organizers said Monday the opening ceremony will just take area on July 23, 2021 pretty much accurately a single yr immediately after the video games have been because of to start off this yr.

Final week, the IOC and Japanese organizers postponed the Olympics till 2021 for the reason that of the coronavirus pandemic.

This year’s video games have been scheduled to open up on July 24 and near on Aug. 9. But the close to correct a single-yr delay will see the rescheduled closing ceremony on Aug. eight.

There had been chat of switching the Olympics to spring, a transfer that would coincide with the blooming of Japan’s well known cherry blossoms. But it would also clash with European soccer and North American sports leagues.

Right after holding out for months, neighborhood organizers and the IOC last week postponed the Tokyo Games under strain from athletes, countrywide Olympic bodies and sports federations. It really is the first postponement in Olympic heritage, although there have been various cancellations in the course of wartime.

Both of those Tokyo arranging committee president Yoshiro Mori and CEO Toshiro Muto have said the price of rescheduling will be huge neighborhood stories estimate billions of bucks with most of the costs borne by Japanese taxpayers.
 

A guy walks previous a massive banner advertising the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Photograph: AP | PTI

Muto promised transparency in calculating the costs, and testing situations choosing how they are divided up.

Considering the fact that it (the Olympics) have been scheduled for this summer months, all the venues had provided up hosting any other occasions in the course of this time, so how do we technique that? Muto questioned.

“In addition, there will need to have to be assures when we e book the new dates, and there is a chance this will incur hire payments. So there will be costs incurred and we will need to have to look at them a single by a single. I assume that will be the more durable approach.

Katsuhiro Miyamoto, an emeritus professor of sports economics at Kansai College, puts the costs as superior as $four billion. That would protect the selling price of protecting stadiums, refitting them, spending rentals, penalties and other costs.

Japan is formally paying $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. However, an audit bureau of the Japanese government suggests the costs are twice that a lot. All of the paying is general public income except $five.6 billion from a privately funded operating price range.

The Switzerland-primarily based Intercontinental Olympic Committee is contributing $1.3 billion, according to arranging committee documents. The IOC’s contribution goes into the operating price range.
 

Motion blur of tourists previous “Welcome to Tokyo 2020” information is witnessed at the arrival gate in Haneda Airport, Tokyo, Japan

Bach has frequently referred to as the Tokyo Olympics the greatest geared up in heritage. However, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso also termed them cursed. Aso competed in capturing in the 1976 Olympics, and was born in 1940.

The Olympics prepared for 1940 in Tokyo have been canceled for the reason that of World War II.

The run-up to the Olympics also saw IOC member Tsunekazu Takeda, who also headed the Japanese Olympic Committee, compelled to resign last yr amid a bribery scandal.