The past few months have seen a number of announcements from the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020), ahead of the global event set to take place in Japan in under two years’ time.

Playing Schedule

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games will feature a record 33 sports and 339 events, running from 24 July to 9 August 2020 with handball being played at the Yoyogi National Stadium, taking place over 16 match days.

The men’s handball competition will start on Saturday 25 July at 09:30 (local time) and the women’s competition will start the following day, on Sunday 26 July at 09:30 (local time). The two competitions will then run on alternate days, ending with the men’s medal games on Saturday, 8 August and women’s medal games on Sunday, 9 August.

Tokyo 2020 will use a total of 42 venues, including 24 existing, 10 temporary and eight new permanent venues.

For more information visit https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/sport/olympic-schedule/

Tickets prices announced

Residents of Japan are now able to register on Tokyo 2020's online platform https://id.tokyo2020.jp in order to receive information and, from the spring of 2019, to be able to apply for tickets which will cost them between JPY 3,500-20,000.

Those living outside of Japan will be able to order their tickets through the National Olympic Committee of their respective country or their authorised ticket reseller, with prices and the application process varying from country to country.

Volunteer for Tokyo 2020

Last week Tokyo 2020 announced the start of its volunteer programme, with applications being accepted from Wednesday, 26 September until December (exact closing date to be announced later).

Up to 80,000 volunteering opportunities are available for applicants who must be born prior to 1 April 2002 and be either Japanese nationals or persons with valid visas permitting residence in Japan during the volunteer period (including temporary visitors).

For more information, and to apply, visit https://tokyo2020.org/en/special/volunteer.

Two years to go, mascot revealed

With less than two years to go, back in July a countdown ceremony was held at Skytree Town in Tokyo, where the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games mascots were unveiled. The mascots were decided after more than 75% of elementary schools in Japan and a number of overseas Japanese schools took part in a selection process to vote for their favourite set of mascot designs between December 2017 and February 2018.

Over 40,000 fans attended at the event to see Olympic mascot Miraitowa (pronounced mee-rah-e-toh-wa) for the first time. Miraitowa is based on the Japanese words mirai (future) and towa (eternity) combined.

You can view the profile of Miraitowa HERE.

Olympic flame lighting and handover ceremony dates

The Olympic flame lighting ceremony and Olympic flame handover ceremony that will form part of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay will take place in March 2020. The flame lighting ceremony will be held in Ancient Olympia, home of the ancient Games in Greece, on 12 March, followed by the Greek leg of the Torch Relay which will run for eight days in Greece until 19 March when the ceremony to hand over the flame to Tokyo 2020 will be held at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.

The flame then travels to Japan where it will be displayed for six days in the Tohoku region, Miyagi prefecture, Iwate prefecture and Fukushima prefecture to commemorate the earthquake and tsunami that struck the area in March 2011, before the torch relay starts on 26 March, taking in all of Japan's 47 prefectures, before arriving at the opening ceremony on 24 July.

United Nations Global Compact, sustainable games

Tokyo 2020 also announced that it joined the United Nations Global Compact, a worldwide initiative encouraging businesses to align their strategies and operations with 10 principles governing human rights, labour regulations, the environment and anti-corruption measures.

In addition, Tokyo 2020 published its final Sustainability Plan, entitled, “Be better, together – for the planet and the people”.

For more information about Tokyo 2020, visit the official website at https://tokyo2020.org/en/.

Photos: Tokyo 2020