The Egyptian National Olympic Committee (ENOC) is continuing to build up its teams for the Tokyo Olympic Games scheduled to take place in summer 2021, reports Inas Mazhar. The games were to have been staged this year but were postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. However, and despite being held in 2021, the Olympic Games retained the same name and will still be called the 2020 Tokyo Games. The games will now be held from 23 July to 8 August 2021. “However, our athletes are continuing with their training,” Sherif Al-Erian, secretary general of the ENOC, said. “We have gathered up all the teams and individual sports who have qualified for the Olympic Games at the Olympic Training Centre in Maadi so that they can train there amid medical precautions. They resumed training in June after we received the approval from the minister of youth and sports. We hope the delay of the games can be positive for us as it would give our teams more time to train and prepare,” he said. Al-Erian said preparations had to be modified after the suspension of sports activities from March to July. Teams resumed training and playing in tournaments as of August. “The plans had to change from 2020 to 2021 after the IOC and the Tokyo organisers decided to postpone the games to the summer of 2021. Accordingly, the budget plan had to change as well,” he said. Egypt has already secured spots in the Olympics in football, archery, artistic swimming, canoeing, equestrian, handball, football, gymnastics, modern pentathlon, rowing, sailing, swimming, table tennis, tennis, wrestling and shooting. Some other sports are yet to qualify after the qualifications were suspended because of the pandemic. On the other hand, the IOC recently announced that the Olympic Torch Relay will start its journey on 25 March 2021 from the J-Village National Training Centre in Fukushima Prefecture, and then traverse all 47 prefectures across Japan over a period of 121 days. In principle, the route and the schedule of the relay will remain as originally planned. A statement issued by the IOC said: “As 2021 will mark the 10th anniversary of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay will aim to showcase the recovery of the areas worst affected by the disaster, in line with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay concept of ‘Hope Lights Our Way'.” In the wake of Covid-19, the torch will additionally symbolise the light at the end of the current dark tunnel, a beacon of hope for the world in the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Games, themselves a symbol of the resilience, unity and solidarity of humankind. The torch will reach Tokyo on 9 July, in time for the flame to light the cauldron in the Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony of thegames on 23 July. As part of the simplification efforts for the Tokyo Games, after the one-year delay, the grand start of the relay and other ceremonies will be scaled back, as will the number of operational staff. Covid-19 countermeasures for the relay will be announced at a later date, after full consultation with experts and public health authorities. Those previously confirmed as Olympic torchbearers will be given preference to run in next year's relay, the Tokyo 2020 organisers have said. Around 10,000 torchbearers are set to take part. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board (EB) and Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee discussed the estimated $280 million in cost savings that will be achieved by initial simplification and optimisation measures developed to deliver a games fit for a post-corona world. This tentative figure was revealed at the IOC EB meeting held remotely earlier this week. It is based on over 50 measures that were agreed by the IOC and Tokyo 2020 at last month's Coordination Commission meeting. Speaking after the meeting, IOC President Thomas Bach said: “We got another very encouraging, precise and excellent report from the Tokyo Organising Committee. There is really great progress being made to make these Olympic Games fit for the post-corona world. Savings of about $280 million will be achieved in the operational budget by applying 50 plus measures, which had been agreed between the Organising Committee and the IOC Coordination Commission in the last meeting.” Examples of some of the key measures being implemented include the review of specifications for temporary overlay and other equipment at venues; the reduction of service levels and the look of the games in venues and in the Olympic and the Paralympic Village; the optimisation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Torch Relay operations; encouraging stakeholders to optimise their delegation working in Tokyo; and staffing plans for the Organising Committee. The results of these efforts will now allow Tokyo 2020 to estimate the total additional costs associated with the postponement, including the approximate costs for Covid-19 countermeasures. The Organising Committee will work through these topics in detail and present its updated budget by the end of this year. On the countermeasure planning, Bach said: “We also see that the work on Covid-19 countermeasures is making good progress, and that more and more measures are being added, including the potential availability of vaccines and rapid testing – where we are very confident that they will be available. All these new methods will be added to the toolbox, which will then be available when we have to take the final decision. Then we can decide which tools we can take out of this toolbox, and apply them for the safe organisation of these Olympic Games, about which both the Organising Committee and the IOC are very, very confident.” The IOC EB also agreed on an addendum to the Host City Contract, which has now been approved by all the relevant parties. *A version of this article appears in print in the 15 October, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
