Coronavirus: Tokyo Olympic Games postponed to 2021

The Tokyo Olympics have been postponed until 2021 but organisers insist on still calling them the 2020 Games.

An installation of the Olympic rings in Tokyo on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

The Tokyo Olympics were postponed until 2021 on Tuesday, ending weeks of speculation.

On my desk is a souvenir packet of Tokyo 2020 Olympic mascot pins, obtained in late January when I was in Japan doing a story on preparations six months to go.

At the time there was an underlying concern about medical problems in Wuhan across the East China Sea but nothing organisers were worried about. Indeed the big issue was dealing with the weather and what could be extreme heat and humidity in the height of a Tokyo summer.

Organisers considered the biggest unknown was an earthquake, not a surprising thought given the Games were pursued by Japan just months after the devastating 2011earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 15,000.

Now, with the Tokyo Olympics – meant to commemorate those tsunami reconstruction efforts – officially postponed and moved from July 24, 2020 to a yet to be determined date in 2021, it’s fascinating that Japanese politicians and IOC heavyweights insist the Games will still be called Tokyo 2020.

In a telephone hook-up on Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach, along with the Games co-ordinating chairman John Coates and Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe, have agreed the Games will be held sometime before the end of August, 2021 but confirmed the name of the Games wouldn’t change.

Mr Abe said he and Mr Bach also agreed the Tokyo Olympic Games would not be cancelled.

“I proposed to postpone for a year and president Thomas Bach responded with 100 per cent agreement,” said Mr Abe.

The Paralympics will also shift in line.

The Olympics have been cancelled before: in 1916, 1940 and 1944 during the two World Wars.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic torch relay was due to start its route around Japan on Thursday, and it will now stay in the country ‘’as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times’’.

Most probably the Olympics will be held in 2021 starting with an opening ceremony on July 23, but negotiations with other international sports federations – requiring them to clear their own sports calendars for the fortnight of the Olympics – is still ongoing.

Brand experts might consider anything willingly associated with 2020 will forever more be tainted with horror and trauma brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

But Games organisers have millions of dollars worth of merchandising printed, made and stockpiled; most with the Olympic mascot, Miraitowa, whose ‘’personality’’ we are told is inspired by the Japanese proverb “learn from the past and develop new ideas”. His name represents the wish the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will lead to a future of everlasting hope in the hearts of everyone around the world.

Such has been the fast paced developments in dealing with coronavirus, earlier this month the IOC insisted that the Games would go ahead as planned. But behind the scenes, it was considered there was no upside to making a premature announcement, and indeed allowing athletes to have a focus for their training was considered optimal.

Yet by the beginning of this week, Canada’s decision to withdraw from the Games, and Australia telling its athletes to prepare for 2021, spearheaded a flurry of phone calls from Sweden, Slovakia, Great Britain and crucially, the United States to Lausanne IOC headquarters pressuring for a postponement. So it was no surprise that Japanese politicians, understanding the global crisis, were amenable to a quick postponement announcement.

The big American network NBC will be the key voice in deciding the new schedule, for its US$7.75bn contract, signed in 2014, for the rights to the Games until 2032, underpins nearly all of the IOC’s operation. They will want Olympic programming to slot around NFL scheduling. Earlier this year NBC Sports announced $1.25bn in ad bookings for the Games, so the network will also want to appease key advertisers.

In the next few weeks Olympic consultants are finalising various costings on moving the Games back to various dates.

Funnily enough, Miraitowa can teleport through time, Games organisers said when they launched the mascots more than two years ago. So even though it the Games will be in 2021, a blue coloured toy apparently won’t have any problem bearing its 2020 tag.