Tokyo Olympics: Qualified athletes to keep spots in 2021
What's the story
Athletes who had already qualified for the Tokyo Olympics 2020 will get to keep their respective spots in the event to be held next year. The Tokyo Olympics got postponed until 2021 in wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Around 57% of the 11,000 scheduled participants for Tokyo had already booked their slots when the International Olympic Committee pushed the Games back.
Athletes
Athletes to be automatically qualified
The IOC and 32 international sports federations held a teleconference where it was decided to respect the qualification process. "Thomas Bach (the IOC President) first explained the reasons for the postponement of the Games, then said that the athletes qualified for Tokyo 2020 would automatically be qualified for 2021," one of the participants in the conference told AFP.
Specific date
There isn't a definite date for the rescheduled Games
The Olympics'>Tokyo 2020 Olympics got postponed by a year by the IOC. The decision was taken after a conference call between the IOC president Thomas Bach and Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. The Tokyo Games were scheduled for July 24-August 9. At the moment, there isn't a definite date for the rescheduled Games. The report adds the dates won't be later than 2021 summer.
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Qualification organization one of the main subjects discussed
"One of the main subjects was to know when and how to organize the qualifications. In some federations, many sportsmen and sportswomen are not qualified and it takes at least three months for the Olympic Games to organize them," the participant added.
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New Olympics date to be made within four weeks
"The allocated quotas remain allocated," confirmed another participant in the meeting. "Thomas Bach has confirmed that a decision (on a new date for the 2021 event) will be made within the next four weeks," he said. "Some said they prefer May 2021, others June ..."