The Tokyo Olympics, which will take place in 2021, are going to be overhauled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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PIERRE EMMANUEL DELETREE / SIPA

The organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, unveiled on Friday the outline of a plan to simplify the event to avoid an explosion in costs linked to its postponement.

Athletes' welcome parties canceled, reduction in the number of tickets offered to officials, members of the Games organization and the media, fewer mascots and fireworks… More than 50 savings measures were presented, less than ten months before the opening ceremony of the Olympics, scheduled for July 23, 2021.

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The event will be less grandiose than the last editions, with national delegations reduced by 10 to 15%.

The number of athletes will not be affected, however, organizers said.

The simplification of the program of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics, usually sumptuous, is still under study.

“What was initially proposed (for these ceremonies) has changed dramatically,” Japanese organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori told a press conference.

"It will perhaps be simpler and more modest", he added, while hoping that these ceremonies will bring all the same "of the joy".

The "Tokyo model"

The revised cost of the Olympics has not yet been revealed by the organizers.

In December 2019, before their postponement, they estimated the total bill at 1.350 billion yen (11 billion euros) for the Japanese side.

The addition should in particular be reinforced by the renegotiation of reservations for Olympic venues and means of transport, or by the extension of the contracts of organizational staff for an additional year.

Despite the coronavirus and a hefty bill, the Tokyo Games "must take place", insisted Friday the vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), John Coates, who spoke by videoconference.

“We don't want to, we can't ignore a whole generation of Olympic athletes,” he stressed.

"What we are about to do with these simplifications and with this efficiency will leave an important legacy that we call the" Tokyo model "", the Olympics adapted to a "post-coronavirus" world, John Coates said.

More than half of the inhabitants of Tokyo are against the Olympics in 2021 https://t.co/MRiLy6002E

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However, Olympic fervor has clearly fallen in Japan because of the coronavirus: less than a third of those questioned in surveys carried out this summer want the Olympics to take place in 2021.

Complex negotiations are underway between the organizers and the Japanese authorities on how to organize the Olympics safely, even in the scenario of a pandemic that would not yet be under control next summer.

John Coates spoke on Friday about the possibility of regular testing and mandatory vaccination - provided vaccines are available by then.

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