How we got to Tokyo 2020 despite a global pandemic

After a ballot that took spot successful Buenos Aires, Tokyo is announced arsenic the big of the 2020 Olympics, up of Istanbul and Madrid. It volition beryllium the 2nd clip that Tokyo has hosted the Summer Games, having antecedently done truthful successful 1964.

NBC agrees to wage $7.7 cardinal to broadcast the games done to 2032, extending a existent woody moving up to the Tokyo Olympics. The 2032 Olympics volition beryllium the 23rd to beryllium broadcast by NBC.

The IOC adds five sports to the Games; skateboarding, karate, surfing, sports climbing and shot / softball volition each diagnostic astatine Tokyo 2020.

The names for the mascots of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, Miraitowa and Someity respectively, are revealed. Miraitowa combines the Japanese words mirai and towa, meaning aboriginal and eternity. Someity is named aft Someiyoshino, the cherry blossom variety, and besides echoes the English operation “so mighty”.

Exactly 1 twelvemonth from the opening ceremony, the Tokyo 2020 medals are revealed. Melded from copper and zinc recovered successful donated cellphones and different electronics, the medals person a pebble-like quality and measurement 8.5 centimeters successful diameter.

Crafted with inspiration from Japanese architecture and the environment, Kengo Kuma’s 68,000-seat stadium successful Tokyo is inaugurated. It outgo 157 cardinal yen ($1.4 billion) and is scheduled to big the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics and Paralympics, arsenic good arsenic shot matches and assorted track-and-field events during the Games.

Cases of an unknown viral pneumonia successful Wuhan, China, are archetypal reported to the World Health Organization. The cases occurred betwixt December 12 and December 29, according to Wuhan Municipal Health, but the microorganism was chartless astatine the time. On January 7, Chinese authorities place the microorganism arsenic a caller coronavirus, and 4 days aboriginal the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announces the archetypal decease caused by coronavirus.

The lighting ceremony of the Olympic occurrence takes spot successful Olympia, Greece. Due to concerns implicit coronavirus transmission, the assemblage is kept small. The relay, scheduled to question to each 47 prefectures of Japan implicit 121 days from March 26, is suspended the adjacent time amid coronavirus concerns.

With the coronavirus outbreak continuing to dispersed crossed the globe, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the IOC hold to postpone the Olympics until 2021, clarifying that the lawsuit volition inactive beryllium dubbed Tokyo 2020.

The IOC announces new dates for the Tokyo Olympics, which volition beryllium held from July 23 to August 8, 2021. The caller dates for the Paralympic Games are August 24 to September 5, 2021.

As the coronavirus pandemic shows fewer signs of abating, Olympic organizers suggest plans for a scaled-down event successful Tokyo, which includes cutting down the fig of officials by 10-15%, reducing invitations for some the opening and closing ceremonies, and offering shorter opening periods for grooming venues.

The organizing committee says the postponed Games are acceptable to outgo $2.8 cardinal much than initially projected, bringing the full outgo of hosting the Games to $15.4 cardinal with an other $900 cardinal for pandemic countermeasures.

The IOC tells CNN that a study successful the Times of London, citing an unnamed elder subordinate of the ruling coalition, that the Games are acceptable to beryllium canceled owed to Covid-19 are “categorically untrue,” with the Japanese authorities corroborating the aforesaid message.

Less than six weeks earlier the Olympic torch relay is owed to statesman successful Fukushima to showcase the region’s betterment from a catastrophic atomic catastrophe a decennary ago, the Japanese prefecture is rocked by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake.

For athletes, the past twelvemonth has been beset with uncertainty. Husband and woman Tyrone Smith and Sandi Morris archer CNN astir the challenges of navigating the “purgatory” of a postponed Olympics, and however they are holding retired connected dreams of competing astatine their archetypal Games arsenic a joined couple.

Tokyo 2020 organizers denote that planetary spectators volition beryllium refused entry into Japan for this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games to trim the hazard of Covid-19 transmission.

The Tokyo Olympic torch relay begins. Members of the Japan women’s shot squad began the 121-day journey, which passes done 859 locations earlier culminating successful the opening ceremonial connected July 23.

A petition calling for the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics garners 350,000 signatures successful 9 days, reflecting the public opposition to the lawsuit arsenic a 4th question of Covid-19 infections sweeps Japan.

Amid increasing concerns implicit the viability of holding Tokyo 2020 during a planetary pandemic, Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of apical Japanese e-commerce institution Rakuten, tells CNN Business that hosting the Olympics amounts to a “suicide mission”.

Tokyo venues for the pandemic-delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics volition not person spectators owed to the city's coronavirus authorities of exigency done the Games, according to the Japanese Olympic Committee. Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee president Seiko Hashimoto said owed to the pandemic, organizers person “no prime but to clasp the Games successful a constricted way.”

Even arsenic athletes arrived for the Olympics, immoderate were soon to observe that they wouldn’t beryllium capable to compete. Czech formation volleyball players Markéta Sluková-Nausch and Barbora Hermannova were some ruled retired of the Games arsenic the European squad grappled with Covid-19 aft they landed successful Tokyo. Sluková-Nausch’s affirmative trial effect was announced connected July 22 , arsenic she became the 5th subordinate of the Czech Olympic squad to person tested affirmative for Covid-19 successful Tokyo.

“We cried, past we swore, past we cried again,” said Sluková-Nausch, whose affirmative trial besides rules retired her playing spouse Hermannová from the Games.

“I americium conscionable hoping that nary different athletes volition travel us, due to the fact that I deliberation that thing similar this is simply a nightmare for immoderate athlete, for immoderate Olympian, who gets this far, this adjacent to the Olympic competition,” added Sluková-Nausch.

The Olympics Opening Ceremony officially kicked disconnected the Games, with US First Lady Jill Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron attending the event. As Japan continued to study grounds Covid-19 cases, athletes from implicit 200 countries paraded successful a near-empty stadium. Some teams practiced societal distancing portion others didn’t. Ahead of the opening ceremony's start, protesters took to the streets of Tokyo to dependable their absorption to the staging of the Olympics successful Japan.