The 2020 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXII Olympiad and also known as Tokyo 2020, was an international multi-sport event held from July 23, 2021 to August 8, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on July 21, 2021. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on September 7, 2013.
Originally scheduled to take place from July 24, 2020 to August 9, 2020, the event was postponed to 2021 on March 24, 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the first such instance in the history of the Olympic Games (previous games had been canceled but not rescheduled). However, the event retained the Tokyo 2020 branding for marketing purposes. 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 first and only Olympic Games to be held without official spectators. The Games were the most expensive ever, with total spending of over $20 billion.
The Games were the 4th 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. 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 first and only Olympic Games to have been held in an odd-numbered year and the first Summer Olympics since 1900 to be held in a non-leap year.
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 International Olympic Committee (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.
The United States topped the medal count by both total golds (39) and total medals (113), with China finishing second by both respects (38 and 89). Host nation Japan finished third, setting a record for the most gold medals and total medals ever won by their delegation at an Olympic Games with 27 and 58. Great Britain finished fourth, with a total of 22 gold and 64 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. Burkina Faso, San Marino and Turkmenistan also won their first-ever Olympic medals.
For the 2020 Summer Olympics, Shefik developed mission-critical, application based technology at NBC Sports.
Credits
- Technical Lead, SCORE: Shefik
Last Updated: July 2, 2023
