Tokyo continues to be best-prepared Olympic city
At today’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board (EB) meeting, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee underlined their readiness ahead of this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games. They are now fully focused on delivering this summer’s Games, following the successful start of the Olympic Torch Relay on 25 March.
After the 100 days to go milestone was passed one week ago, Tokyo 2020 President Hashimoto Seiko and CEO Muto Toshiro reinforced the joint focus on COVID-19 countermeasures, explaining that the team in Tokyo are now entering the final stages of preparations to deliver this year’s Games safely, securely and successfully.
Speaking about today’s update, IOC President Thomas Bach said: “Tokyo continues to be the best-prepared Olympic city ever. This was underlined by the information we got from the Organising Committee and from the Coordination Commission, which are closely cooperating at full speed to prepare these Games, which are approaching very, very fast.
“Now we are working together – the IOC, the IPC [International Paralympic Committee] and the Organising Committee – together with many experts around the world, and in particular the World Health Organization, on the second version of the Playbooks, which will be scientific based and very factual, and will be published before the end of this month.”
The second edition of the Playbooks, a key asset in the toolkit being developed to protect Games participants and the population of Japan, are scheduled to be released next week. These updated guidelines will build on the strong foundations outlined in the first edition, providing greater detail which will allow key stakeholders to continue their preparations for this year’s Games.
An update was also provided to the IOC EB on the Olympic Torch Relay, which has now passed through 14 prefectures (out of 47), including Fukushima, Nagano and Osaka. Tokyo 2020 explained that, with more than 2,500 torchbearers having already carried the flame and 7,910 more to go until the Opening Ceremony, their stories have generated positive reactions throughout the Olympic flame’s journey across Japan so far, with significant levels of engagement across Tokyo 2020’s digital channels.
In addition, a report was provided on the progress being made by Milano Cortina 2026. This followed the Coordination Commission meeting held with the Organising Committee on Monday, led by Chair Sari Essayah. In her report to the IOC EB, she highlighted the success of the selection process for the new Milano Cortina 2026 emblem, “Futura”, which saw over 871,000 votes cast. Essayah also summarised the situation regarding the sliding track in Cortina d’Ampezzo.