2020 Summer Olympics

"2020 Olympics", "Tokyo 2020", "2021 Olympics", and "Tokyo 2021" redirect here. For the Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne, Switzerland, see 2020 Winter Youth Olympics. For the Summer Paralympics, see 2020 Summer Paralympics.

Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Emblem of the 2020 Summer Olympics[a]
LocationTokyo, Japan
MottoUnited by Emotion[b]
Nations206 (including EOR and ROC teams)
Athletes11,319 (5,910 men, 5,409 women)[2]
Events339 in 33 sports (51 disciplines)
Opening23 July 2021
Closing8 August 2021
Opened by
Naruhito
Emperor of Japan
Closed by
Thomas Bach
President of the International Olympic Committee
Cauldron
Naomi Osaka
StadiumJapan National Stadium
Summer
Winter
2020 Summer Paralympics
Olympic rings
Part of a series on
2020 Summer Olympics

The 2020 Summer Olympics,[c] officially the Games of the XXXII Olympiad[d] and officially branded as Tokyo 2020,[e] were an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July 2021. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 7 September 2013.[3]

Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the event was postponed to 2021 on 24 March 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the first such instance in the history of the Olympic Games (several previous games had been cancelled but not rescheduled).[4][5] However, the event retained the Tokyo 2020 branding for marketing purposes.[6] It was largely held behind closed doors with no public spectators permitted due to the declaration of a state of emergency in the Greater Tokyo Area in response to the pandemic, the only Olympic Games to be held without official spectators.[f] The Games were the most expensive ever, with total spending of over $20 billion.[8]

The Games were the fourth Olympic Games to be held in Japan, following the 1964 Summer Olympics (Tokyo), 1972 Winter Olympics (Sapporo), and 1998 Winter Olympics (Nagano). Tokyo became the first city in Asia to hold the Summer Olympic Games twice.[g] The 2020 Games were the second of three consecutive Olympics to be held in East Asia, following the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea and preceding the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Due to the one-year postponement, Tokyo 2020 was the only Olympic Games to have been held in an odd-numbered year.[10]

New events were introduced in existing sports, including 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX and mixed gender team events in a number of existing sports, as well as the return of madison cycling for men and an introduction of the same event for women. New IOC policies also allowed the host organizing committee to add new sports to the Olympic program for just one Games. The disciplines added by the Japanese Olympic Committee were baseball and softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding, the last four of which made their Olympic debuts, and the last three of which will remain on the Olympic program.[11]

The United States topped the medal table both by gold (39) and total medals (113), with China finishing second (38 and 89). Host nation Japan finished third, setting a record for the most gold and overall medals won by their delegation at an Olympic Games with 27 and 58. Great Britain finished fourth, with a total of 22 gold and 64 total medals. The Russian delegation competing as the ROC finished fifth with 20 gold medals and third in the overall medal count, with 71 medals. Bermuda, the Philippines and Qatar won their first-ever Olympic gold medals.[12][13][14] Burkina Faso, San Marino and Turkmenistan also won their first-ever Olympic medals.[15][16][17]


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  1. ^ "'United by Emotion' to be the Tokyo 2020 Games Motto". Tokyo2020.org. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. 17 February 2020. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020.
  2. ^ "Olympics: Tokyo Games cost totals 1.42 tril. yen, twice bid figure". Kyodo News. 21 June 2022. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. A total of 11,420 athletes took part in the Tokyo Olympics and a record-high 4,403 at the Paralympics, the organizers said.
  3. ^ "Olympics 2020: Tokyo wins race to host Games". BBC Sport. 7 September 2013. Archived from the original on 5 February 2016. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  4. ^ "Olympics history: Have the Games been postponed before?". Los Angeles Times. 24 March 2020. Archived from the original on 29 March 2020. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  5. ^ García-Hodges, Ahiza; Talmazan, Yuliya; Yamamoto, Arata (24 March 2020). "Tokyo 2020 Olympics postponed over coronavirus concerns". NBC News.
  6. ^ Multiple sources:
  7. ^ Dooley, Ben (8 July 2021). "'Spectators Will Be Barred at Tokyo Olympics Amid New Covid Emergency". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 8 July 2021.
  8. ^ Cervantes, Alberto (23 July 2021). "The Tokyo Olympics' Staggering Price Tag and Where It Stands in History". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on 13 November 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2021.
  9. ^ Brockell, Gillian (24 March 2020). "'This isn't the first time Olympics in Japan have been disrupted". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  10. ^ "An Olympics like no other, Tokyo perseveres to host Games". Usatoday.com. 20 July 2021. Archived from the original on 20 February 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2022.
  11. ^ Kremers, Daniel (2020). "Outdoor sports in the periphery: Far from the compact games". In Barbara Holthus; Isaac Gagné; Wolfram Manzenreiter; Franz Waldenberger (eds.). Japan Through the Lens of the Tokyo Olympics. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003033905. ISBN 978-1-003-03390-5.
  12. ^ Ostlere, Lawrence (26 July 2021). "Flora Duffy wins Bermuda's first Olympic gold as GB's Georgia Taylor-Brown takes silver". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  13. ^ Chappell, Bill (26 July 2021). "The Philippines Wins Its First Olympic Gold After Nearly 100 Years Of Trying". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 25 April 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  14. ^ Oliver, Brian (31 July 2021). "Weightlifter Meso wins Qatar's first ever Olympic gold medal". Inside the Games. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
  15. ^ Oyeleke, Sodiq (5 August 2021). "Hugues Zango wins Burkina Faso's first-ever Olympic medal". The Punch. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  16. ^ Mercer, Bryan (29 July 2021). "San Marino wins first Olympic medal in nation's history". www.nbcolympics.com. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  17. ^ Ellingworth, James (27 July 2021). "Weightlifter Guryeva wins Turkmenistan's 1st Olympic medal". APNews. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2021.