All the venues initially planned for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, postponed to the summer of 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, have been able to be booked, thus removing a significant logistical obstacle, Japanese organizers announced on Friday.
The calendar of events will be similar to that planned for 2020, except for schedule changes in some cases, the organizers said in a statement. The opening ceremony will therefore take place on July 23, and the closing ceremony on August 8.
Tokyo is working on a reduced Olympics because of the postponement to 2021 via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/sIpD06vo6g
- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) June 4, 2020“There is still work to do. But we have reached an important milestone, ”said Hidemasa Nakamura, one of the organizers of the Olympic Games, during a preliminary press conference. Now that the calendar of events has been set, "athletes who aim to participate in the Games can set concrete goals," said the sports director of the organizing committee, Koji Murofushi.
The unprecedented decision to postpone the Games for a year, taken at the end of March when it had become clear that the coronavirus pandemic would not have disappeared by the summer of 2020, poses a set of logistical difficulties and additional costs still not encrypted.
Soon refunds for those who can no longer come
Tokyo 2020 will notably have to compensate the companies which had previously reserved for 2021 the many sites planned for the Olympics. Organizers are still looking to identify ways to cut costs, and the opening and closing ceremonies are included in that reflection, according to Hidemasa Nakamura. Refunds for tickets for spectators who cannot attend the event will begin after this fall, organizers said.
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