Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 organisers provide updates to IOC Executive Board

At the opening of the Tokyo 2020 report, the IOC Executive Board once again underlined its full commitment to the success of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, taking place from 24 July to 9 August 2020. The Tokyo 2020 delegation thanked the IOC EB for its support and spoke of their determination to ensure memorable and inspirational Games.

In addition to an update on the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee updated the EB on the many advances that have been made over the last few months.

The marathon course in Sapporo was approved late last year and the venues are on time.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Truce resolution was formally adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at the end of last year, with 186 countries co-sponsoring it.

Tokyo 2020 has appointed the Olympic Village Mayor, Deputy Mayor and seven Associate Mayors. The Olympic Village Mayor is Saburo Kawabuchi, a 1964 Olympian, while the Deputy Mayor is Haruki Uemura, a gold medallist in judo at the Olympic Games Montreal 1976.

Last month, Tokyo 2020 unveiled its Games’ motto: “United by Emotion”. The motto emphasises the power of sport to bring together people from diverse backgrounds to connect and celebrate in a way that reaches beyond their differences.

Tokyo has also achieved an Olympic and Paralympic first through the launch of its new kinetic sports pictograms for each of the 33 Olympic and 22 Paralympic sports.

The Tokyo organisers reported great success in ticket sales, with around 4.5 million tickets sold following the end of the second lottery period. There have now been over 80 million requests for Olympic tickets since sales began last year. Later this year, the remaining tickets will become available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Finally, Tokyo informed the EB that around 80,000 prospective Games volunteers took part in general training sessions from October 2019 to February 2020.

Looking forward, Tokyo’s next big event will be the Olympic Torch Relay, which will begin on 12 March with the lighting of the Olympic flame in Olympia. The Relay in Japan will begin on 26 March and the flame will tour all 47 prefectures over 121 days.

The Organising Committee of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 also began with an update on the coronavirus situation as far as their Games are concerned. They thanked the IOC for its support and reassured the Board that the preparatory works for the Games would be delivered on time and up to standard. The EB reiterated its support to Beijing 2022 and thanked the Chinese organisers for their close collaboration over the past few weeks.

Since its last report to the EB, Beijing 2022 has launched its volunteer programme and has currently received over 670,000 applications. The high-speed railway linking Beijing to Yanqing and Zhangjiakou has also been opened, greatly reducing travel times from the Chinese capital to these winter resorts.

Despite having to cancel the first official test event of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, the organisers pointed out that the Alpine venue in Yanqing had held the 14th Chinese national winter games. This allowed organisers to see the venue in operation for the first time.

The Beijing team was also able to participate in the first World Broadcasters Meeting for their Games, despite the coronavirus, via video conference, as the Rights-Holding Broadcasters for Beijing 2022 met in Madrid.

During the day, there were also brief reports about the progress of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and the Olympic Games LA 2028 given by the Chairs of their respective Coordination Commissions.