Yoshiro Mori, president of the Organizing Committee for the Postponed Olympic Games scheduled in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, announced today, Monday, that the session will take place between July 23 and August 8, 2021.
This came on the basis of a decisive agreement today between the International Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee for the Tokyo Olympics, which was scheduled for this year, but it was decided earlier to postpone it until next year in light of the crisis of the spread of the new epidemic of the Corona virus.
Morey said the Olympics would do so a year after its scheduled date this year, as the Tokyo Games were supposed to take place between July 24 and August 9.
The Paralympics will take place between August 24 and September 5 of next year.
The decisions taken today mean that the world championships for several sports, including swimming and athletics, will change their dates next year.
The International Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee announced the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 session on March 24 due to the Corona pandemic crisis, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said that the session could be held at any time so that it does not exceed the summer of next year.
A statement stated that the decision announced today was taken based on three considerations "to protect the health of all and support efforts to contain the emerging corona virus crisis, and to protect the interests of athletes and Olympic sports, as well as the schedule of global sports competitions."
"Through this announcement, I trust that by working with the Organizing Committee for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Tokyo government, the Japanese government and all parties concerned, we will be able to overcome this unprecedented challenge," Thomas Bach said in the statement.
"Humanity now finds itself in a dark tunnel. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games may form a ray of light at the end of this tunnel," he added.
For his part, Yoshiro Mori said, "I trust that making this decision immediately will help expedite future preparations. The organizing committee for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will continue to work hard for the success of the tournament in the coming year."
"We will start again with preparations for a safe Olympics for athletes and spectators ... but first, we must overcome the emerging corona virus," said Tokyo Mayor Yoriko Koike.
The quick decision on the new date for the Olympics was greeted with particular satisfaction by officials in Japan.
Masayuki Nakata, a Sapporo city official, said he was delighted to hear that marathons and hiking competitions will take place in the summer as originally planned.
"The establishment of the Olympics in the spring would have required completely different arrangements," Nakata said, speaking to Japan's Kyodo News.
The International Olympic Committee had announced earlier the holding of marathon and walking competitions at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Sapporo instead of the Japanese capital, which is experiencing very high temperatures.