Tokyo Olympics will run from July 23 to Aug. 8 in 2021, the organizing committee confirmed Monday.
The games which had been scheduled to be held in Tokyo on July 24 this year, were postponed for the first time because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The International Olympics Committe (IOC) board met and agreed on the new dates for the Summer Games, Japan’s Mainichi reported.
“We originally agreed to postpone the games to the summer of 2021 at the latest, but we wanted to hold them in the summer,” Tokyo Games organizing committee President Yoshiro Mori said during a press conference.
“We thought it will take time to hold qualifications and for the athletes to prepare for them,” he added.
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Meanwhile, the Paralympic Games, which is originally slated to start on August 25, 2020, will now run from August 24 until September 5, 2021.
The Olympics had never been delayed in its 31 editions since the first modern Games was held in 1896. However, it was cancelled three times in 1916 due to World War 1 and again in 1940 and 1944 due to World War 2.
