ATRadio: Busy Year Ahead for Tokyo 2020

(ATR) For the second consecutive year, ‘One year to Tokyo’ is recognized once again.

Due to the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to July 23, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event is very different this time around.

"It is very obvious that we should not make a big celebration to mark this one year to go milestone," media chief and spokesman for Tokyo 2020 Masa Takaya tellsAround the Rings EditorEd Hula in the latest edition of ATRadio.

The committee has much bigger items on their plate. At last month’s IOC Session, organizers agreed on a "phase-to-phase approach" in the lead up to the Olympic Games next summer.

The first phase, which was completed last week, was to secure the venues for next year’s Games, including the Olympic Village and the 43 competition venues. This was "a big step" towards making sure that there will be a Summer Olympics in 2021.

The next phase is to "simplify" the events and the process of the Summer Olympics in order to reduce the cost and the complexity of the Games.

"Simplification is very, very important for organizing the games," Takaya says, adding "we need to fully understand how sports, the Olympic, and Paralympic should play a role in society."

In that respect, organizers are currently focused on the "pure value" of the Olympics and Paralympics.

Following the simplification of Tokyo 2020, the organizers face their "biggest challenge", which is to "create robust countermeasures on COVID-19". This last phase will begin this autumn.

AroundTheRings · ATRadio: One Year to Tokyo, Again