Workers stand at the bottom of the Olympic rings at Tokyo's Odaiba district Tuesday, March 24, 2020. The Tokyo Olympics are probably going to happen, but almost surely in 2021 rather than in four months as planned.
Eugene Hoshiko / AP
Tokyo 2020 Olympics have a new start date: July of 2021
By Bill Chappell/NPR
Eugene Hoshiko / AP
Workers stand at the bottom of the Olympic rings at Tokyo's Odaiba district Tuesday, March 24, 2020. The Tokyo Olympics are probably going to happen, but almost surely in 2021 rather than in four months as planned.
The Summer Olympics that had been scheduled to begin in Tokyo this July will instead take place almost exactly one year later, the International Olympic Committee says. The games were postponed last week due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be celebrated from 23 July to 8 August 2021,” the IOC said Monday. It added that the Paralympic Games will follow, running from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.
Despite the rescheduling, the next Olympics will still be known as the Tokyo 2020 games, the IOC said last week.
The Olympic flame — which recently reached Japan after being lit in Greece — will remain in Japan until the postponed games are held.
It is the first time an Olympics has been postponed; the games were suspended three times due to World War I and World War II.
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