Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July, 2021

One week after the International Olympic Committee postponed the 2020 summer games, they have re-scheduled it for the same time slot in 2021. Monday morning, the organizers from Tokyo announced that the opening ceremonies would be taking place on July 23, 2021. Fallling almost exactly one year from when the games were due to start this year.

"The schedule for the games is key to preparing for the games," Tokyo organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori said. "This will only accelerate our progress."

This year's games were scheduled to open on July 24 and close on Aug. 9 and were postponed in a precaution to prevent the spread of the virus, COVID-19. The one-year delay will now see the closing ceremonies on Aug. 8.

There had been some discussion of moving the Olympics to the spring of 2021, a move that would coincide them with the blooming of Japan's famous cherry blossoms. But then it would also clash with European soccer and North American sports leagues.

Mori said a spring Olympics was considered but holding the games later gives more space to complete the many qualifying events that have been postponed by the virus outbreak. "We wanted to have more room for the athletes to qualify."

Both Mori and CEO Toshiro Muto have said the cost of rescheduling the Olympics will be "massive." The local reports estimate billions of dollars, with most of the expenses being paid by Japanese taxpayers. Muto promised transparency in determining the costs.

Currently, Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. However, an audit of the Japanese government says the costs are estimated to be twice that much. All of the spending comes from public money except $5.6 billion from a privately funded operating budget.

The IOC is contributing $1.3 billion, according to organizing committee documents. The IOC's contribution goes into the operating budget for the games.

Also announced Monday was that the Paralympics were rescheduled to Aug. 24-Sept. 5.

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