It’s official! The Tokyo Olympics start date is July 23, 2021.
Japan’s government previously said it was negotiating with the IOC to postpone the Games by a year at most due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Sankei newspaper reported.
Tokyo Olympics will now run from July 23 to August 8, 2021 and the paralympics from August 23 to September 4, 2021.
Less than five months later, the region will see the Winter Olympics 2022 being held from February 4, 2022 to February 20, 2022.
“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” IOC member Dick Pound said in a phone interview to USA Today. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”
Here’s the official announcement:
“The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo could stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times and that the Olympic flame could become the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present,” the IOC said in a joint statement with Tokyo 2020 organizing committee.
The Olympics were set to open on July 24, while the Paralympics are set for August 25.
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