The city of Tokyo unveiled its gold, silver, and bronze Olympics medals on Wednesday as it kicked off its countdown to the 2020 Olympic Games, which starts on July 24, 2020.
The official account of the Tokyo organising committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games released a video on its Instagram account of the medals.
This is the second time the Japanese capital has played host to the event after 1964.
The 2020 Olympics will include five new sports to enjoy, including baseball, karate, sport climbing, skateboarding, and surfing.
On track to deliver the Games
Organisers are confident they are on track to deliver the Games on time.
“We’re very pleased that the delivery of the games remains firmly on track,” said John Coates, the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission chief, while in Tokyo reviewing the preparations amid several one-year-to-go events.
“… All of the excitement is growing here. You’ve seen the unprecedented interest in ticket sales,” he told reporters.
Around 3 million tickets were sold during the first domestic ticket sale last month, surpassing the organisers’ expectations for sales.
Over 200,000 people in Japan and abroad have applied to the be volunteers at the event — a further indication of the excitement brewing in the country in contrast with the Rio de Janeiro Olympics three years ago that were met with widespread criticism over the use of public funds.
Not everything has been plain sailing
However, organisers have had some major headaches along the way. This year, Tsunekazu Takeda resigned as president of the Japanese Olympic Committee over a corruption scandal related to the bid.
Additionally, organisers had to scrap the logo in 2015 over accusations of plagiarism.
There are also concerns about how hot Tokyo can get over the summer.
A record heatwave in July 2018 killed over a dozen people in Tokyo after temperatures reached more than 30 degrees for the first time since 2018.
But the organisers are already thinking about the problem.
“Discussions were taken here to confirm that spectators will be allowed to take their own water into venues, the coverage for folk lining up to get into venues was explained and looks good,” said Coates.
He also mentioned air-conditioned lounges for the athletes and ice baths at the athlete village and at the venues.
