2020 Summer Olympics
The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that were held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 7 September 2013.
Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Tokyo Games were postponed until 2021 on 24 March 2020 as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the first such postponement in the history of the Olympic Games. However, the Tokyo 2020 branding was retained for marketing purposes. The events were largely held behind closed doors with no public spectators permitted due to the declaration of a state of emergency in the Greater Tokyo Area in response to the pandemic, the only Olympic Games to be held without official spectators. As a consequence of the postponement and the additional challenges caused by the pandemic, the 2020 Games were the most costly ever, with a total expenditure of over $20 billion.
The 2020 Games were the fourth Olympics to be held in Japan, following the 1964 Summer Olympics, the 1972 Winter Olympics, and the 1998 Winter Olympics. Tokyo became the first city in Asia to hold the Summer Olympic Games twice. The 2020 Games were the second of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, following the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and preceding the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Because of the one-year postponement, Tokyo 2020 is the only Olympic Games to have taken place in an odd-numbered year.
New events were introduced in existing sports, including 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX and mixed-gender team events in a number of existing sports, as well as the return of madison cycling for men and an introduction of the same event for women. New IOC policies allowed the host city's organizing committee to add new sports to the Olympic program for just one Games. The disciplines added by the Japanese Olympic Committee were baseball and softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding; the last four of these were making their Olympic debuts, and the last three have remained on the Olympic program.
The United States topped the medal table both by gold and total medals, with China finishing second. Host nation Japan finished third, setting a record for the most gold and overall medals won by their delegation at an Olympic Games with 27 and 58. Great Britain finished fourth, with 22 gold and 64 total medals. The Russian delegation competing as the ROC finished fifth with 20 gold medals and third in the overall medal count, with 71 medals. Bermuda, the Philippines and Qatar won their first-ever Olympic gold medals. Burkina Faso, San Marino and Turkmenistan also won their first-ever Olympic medals.
Bidding process
The three candidate cities were Tokyo, Istanbul, and Madrid. The applicant cities of Baku and Doha were not promoted to candidate status. A bid from Rome was withdrawn.Host city selection
The International Olympic Committee voted to select the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics on 7 September 2013, at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, using an exhaustive ballot system. None of the candidate cities won more than 50% of the votes in the first round; Madrid and Istanbul were tied for second place, so a runoff vote was held to determine which of the two cities would be eliminated. The final vote was a head-to-head contest between Tokyo and Istanbul. Tokyo was selected by 60 votes to 36, gaining at least the 49 votes required for a majority.Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
In January 2020, concerns were raised about the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on athletes and visitors to the Summer Olympic Games. Tokyo organizers and the International Olympic Committee insisted they were monitoring the spread of the disease to minimize its effects on preparations for the Olympics. The IOC stated that in 2020, their Japanese partners and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "made it very clear that Japan could not manage a postponement beyond next summer at the latest". Unlike the case for Zika virus during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted directly between humans, posing tougher challenges for the organizers to counteract the infectious disease and host a safe and secure event. Also unlike the case for H1N1 "swine flu" during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, COVID-19 has a higher fatality rate, and there was no effective vaccine until December 2020. In a February 2020 interview, Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey argued that London would be able to host the Olympic Games at the former 2012 Olympic venues should the Games need to be moved because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike criticized Bailey's comment as inappropriate. In early 2021, officials in the U.S. state of Florida offered to host the delayed Games in their state, while John Coates, the IOC vice president in charge of the Tokyo Olympics, said the Games would open even if the city and other parts of Japan were under a state of emergency because of COVID-19.Estimates by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Kyoto University predicted that states of emergency might be required during the Games. The reports published at the Ministry of Health experts' panel also showed new patients increasing to 10,000 if the Games were to allow spectators.
Qualifying event cancellation and postponement
Concerns about the pandemic began to affect qualifying events in early 2020. Some that were due to take place in February were moved to alternative locations to address concerns about travelling to the affected areas, particularly China. For example, the women's basketball qualification was played in Belgrade, Serbia, instead of Foshan, China. The Asia & Oceania boxing qualification tournament, which was originally planned to be held from 3–14 February in Wuhan, China, instead took place in Amman, Jordan, at the beginning of March. The third round of the women's football qualification tournament was also affected, as the group matches formerly scheduled to be held in China were moved to Australia. The European boxing qualification began on 14 March 2020 in London, United Kingdom, but was suspended after two days of competition before being rescheduled for April 2021. It eventually resumed in June 2021 but was moved to Paris, France, because of renewed concerns over travel to the United Kingdom. Other qualifying events that were due to take place in March to June 2020 began to be postponed until later in the year and mid-2021 as part of a wider suspension of international sporting competitions in response to the pandemic. A multitude of Olympic sports were affected, including archery, baseball, cycling, handball, judo, rowing, sailing, volleyball, and water polo.Effect on doping tests
Mandatory doping tests were significantly restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. European anti-doping organizations raised concerns that blood and urine tests could not be performed and that mobilizing the necessary staff before the pandemic's end would pose health risks. Despite the need for extensive testing ahead of the Games, the World Anti-Doping Agency stated that public health and safety remained its top priority. The China Anti-Doping Agency temporarily suspended testing on 3 February 2020, with plans to resume phased testing later that month. By the end of March, anti-doping organizations in the United States, France, Great Britain, and Germany had also reduced their testing activities.It was subsequently revealed that twenty-three Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the drug trimetazidine, but were permitted to compete, after CHINADA claimed they had ingested tiny amounts unawares from a kitchen. Some, including Zhang Yufei, Wang Shun, and Qin Haiyang, went on to win medals. The affair resulted in deep upset amongst the international athletic community.
Postponement to 2021
The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games released a statement on 2 March 2020, confirming that preparations for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics were "continuing as planned". On 23 March, both Canada and Australia indicated that they would withdraw from the Games if they were not postponed by a year. On the same day, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe stated he would support a proposed postponement, citing that ensuring athlete safety was "paramount", and veteran IOC member and former vice president Dick Pound said that he expected the Games to be postponed.On 24 March 2020, 122 days to go for the planned start, the IOC, TOCOG and prime minister Abe released a joint statement announcing that the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics would be rescheduled to a date "beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021". They stated that the Games 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". Prime Minister Abe stated that IOC president Thomas Bach responded "with 100% agreement" to his proposal to delay the Games. For continuity and marketing purposes, it was agreed that the Games would still be branded as Tokyo 2020 despite the change in schedule.
On 30 March 2020, the IOC and TOCOG announced that they had reached an agreement on the new dates for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which would now begin with the opening ceremony on 23 July 2021 and end with the closing ceremony on 8 August 2021, still to be held in Tokyo. The subsequent Winter Olympics in Beijing are scheduled to begin on 4 February 2022, less than six months later. Shortly before the postponement was confirmed, the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organizers formed a task force named "Here We Go" with the remit to address any issues arising from postponing the Games, such as sponsorship and accommodation. The organizers confirmed that all athletes who had already qualified for Tokyo 2020 prior to 24 March 2020 would keep their qualification slots.