2020 Stony Brook Seawolves football team
The 2020 Stony Brook Seawolves football team represented Stony Brook University in the 2020–21 NCAA Division I FCS football season. They were led by Chuck Priore in his 15th season as head coach and played their home games at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, New York. The Seawolves competed as a member of the Colonial Athletic Association.


2020 Stony Brook Seawolves football team
On July 17, 2020, the Colonial Athletic Association announced that it would not play fall sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the conference is allowing the option for teams to play as independents for the 2020 season if they still wish to play in the fall.


2020 Stony Brook Seawolves football team
Three players from the 2020 Stony Brook team signed undrafted free agent contracts after the 2021 NFL Draft. Safety Augie Contressa signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, defensive tackle Sam Kamara signed with the Chicago Bears and defensive back TJ Morrison signed with the Las Vegas Raiders.


2020 Stony Brook Seawolves football team, Previous season
The Seawolves finished the 2019 season 5–7, 2–6 in CAA play to finish in 11th place.


2020 Stony Brook Seawolves football team, Schedule
Stony Brook had a game scheduled against Fordham on August 29, which was later canceled before the start of the 2020 season. This game was replaced with a game against FBS Western Michigan, which would have paid Stony Brook $325,000. Stony Brook was also originally scheduled to play FBS Florida Atlantic, which would have paid Stony Brook $400,000. Stony Brook's home opener was originally scheduled for September 26 against Sacred Heart. All games on the original 11-game schedule were canceled on July 17, 2020.


2020 Stony Brook Seawolves football team, Schedule
The CAA released its spring conference schedule on October 27, 2020.


2020 Strade Bianche
The 14th edition of the Strade Bianche was held on 1 August 2020. Starting and finishing in Siena, Italy, it was the sixth event of the 2020 UCI World Tour. The race was originally scheduled for 7 March 2020 but was postponed to 1 August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After finishing third in the past two editions of the race, Belgian Wout van Aert of Team Jumbo–Visma won the race in just under five hours after going solo with around 13 kilometers to go.


2020 Strade Bianche, Teams
Twenty-four teams, including 18 of the 19 UCI WorldTeams and six UCI Professional Continental teams. All but two teams entered seven riders; AG2R La Mondiale and Israel Start-Up Nation only entered six riders. Of the 166 riders that started the race, only 42 finished, while a further 8 riders finished over the time limit.


2020 Strade Bianche Women, Race
Strade Bianche (both the men's race and the women's race) was originally scheduled for 7 March 2020 but was postponed to 1 August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 Strade Bianche Women, Route
Starting and finishing in Siena, Italy, Strade Bianche is the second event of the 2020 UCI Women's World Tour. The route is identical to that of the previous years, containing 30 km of gravel roads spread over eight sectors, for a total distance of 136 km.


2020 Strade Bianche Women, Teams
Eight UCI Women's WorldTeams and fourteen UCI Women's Continental Teams made up the twenty-two teams that competed in the race. Most teams entered the maximum of six riders; however, Eurotarget–Bianchi–Vittoria and Servetto–Piumate–Beltrami TSA entered five each, while Astana, Cogeas–Mettler–Look, and Tibco–Silicon Valley Bank only entered four each. The day before the race, Ashleigh Moolman of CCC Liv, Ella Harris of Canyon–SRAM, and Clara Koppenburg of Équipe Paule Ka sustained various injuries in separate training ride crashes and were forced to pull out of the race. This reduced the starting peloton to 121 riders. Of these riders, only 45 finished, while a further 13 riders finished over the time limit.


2020 Strat 200
The 2020 Strat 200 was the 2nd stock car race of the 2020 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series season and the 24th iteration of the event. The race was held on February 21, 2020 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Kyle Busch, driving for his own team Kyle Busch Motorsports, would win the event leading 108 laps, his first of the season and his 57th overall in the NASCAR Gander RV and Outdoors Truck Series. Johnny Sauter of ThorSport Racing and Austin Hill of Hattori Racing Enterprises would take 2nd and 3rd, respectively.


2020 Strat 200, Background
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, located in Clark County, Nevada outside the Las Vegas city limits and about 15 miles northeast of the Las Vegas Strip, is a 1,200-acre (490 ha) complex of multiple tracks for motorsports racing. The complex is owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.


2020 Strat 200, Background
35 trucks would enter the race, meaning that three would not qualify for the race.


2020 Strat 200, Practice
The first and final practice took place on February 21, 2020. Christian Eckes would set the fastest time with a 30.363.


2020 Strat 200, Qualifying
Johnny Sauter of ThorSport Racing would win the pole with a 30.365 with an average speed of 177.836 miles per hour (286.199 km/h). The drivers of Josh Reaume, Natalie Decker, Spencer Boyd, Angela Ruch, and Josh Bilicki would all qualify by owner's points, with notable examples of Bilicki being almost 5 seconds slower than the slowest non-quaiflier, and Ruch being 3 seconds slower. Bayley Currey, Korbin Forrister, and Jennifer Jo Cobb would all not qualify for the race.


2020 Strat 200, Qualifying, Angela Ruch and Parker Kilgerman argument on Twitter
Controversy would occur after qualifying, when Angela Ruch, driving for Reaume Brothers Racing, spun on the apron while going onto the track for her warmup lap. Driver and commentator Parker Kligerman would react to the spin on Twitter, saying "Let's raise the qualification standards for the top 3 series. Side note: I can't wait till a woman driver absolutely laps the field one day. Truly, we are the only sport men and women can compete on equal grounds. Can't wait till super talented women are throughout the field."


2020 Strat 200, Qualifying, Angela Ruch and Parker Kilgerman argument on Twitter
In response, Angela would say on Twitter that she blew a tire during her lap in a swear-word fueled tirade, while also insulting Kilgerman by saying "Dip shit! I blew a tire! The deference between me and u little b:;$&&$ is I make my own path !! In fact if u do not shut your trap I will slap your little ass! Sad little fellas that no one dated in high school !"


2020 Strat 200, Qualifying, Angela Ruch and Parker Kilgerman argument on Twitter
After harsh criticism to the tweet, Angela would say that the comment made on her Twitter was made by her husband, Mike Ruch, saying "Mike always has my back and I'm thankful for that! However I’ve decided to get him his own twitter so he can feel free to speak his mind 😳😂 Have fun everyone it's @mf_ruch @Twitter will never be the same! I'll keep my head down and keep digging! Thanks everyone!"


2020 Strat 200, Race, Pre-race ceremonies
For pre-race ceremonies, the Nellis Air Force Base Honor Guard would present the nation's colors. Billy Maudin, chaplain from the Christian racing ministry Motor Racing Outreach would give out the invocation. Bridgette Foster would sing the national anthem. Kaui Kalahiki, Director of Facilities at The Strat, would give the starting command.


2020 Streatham stabbing
On 2 February 2020 two people were stabbed in Streatham, London in what police termed a terrorist incident. The attacker, Sudesh Amman, was shot dead by the police. A nearby woman was slightly injured by broken glass as a result. At the time Amman was under active counter-terrorism surveillance, after having recently being released from prison on licence; he had been convicted in 2018 for disseminating terrorist material. Following the attack, the British government introduced the Terrorist Offenders Bill, a piece of emergency legislation intended to prevent those convicted of terrorist offences from being released early from prison.


2020 Streatham stabbing, Incident
At about 14:00 GMT (UTC±0) on 2 February 2020 a man stabbed two people on Streatham High Road in London in what the police described as a terrorist incident. The attacker, who had stolen a knife from a store just before the incident and wore silver canisters strapped to his chest, was chased along Streatham High Road and then shot dead by police outside the doors of a Boots chemists.


2020 Streatham stabbing, Victims
A man and a woman were stabbed during the attack, and another woman was injured when police shot the attacker. The man in his 40s was taken to hospital and was initially in a life-threatening condition, which subsequently became less serious. A woman in her 50s was also taken to hospital, and was in a stable condition after being stabbed in the back by Amman. The other woman, in her 20s, was injured by glass following the shooting and treated for minor injuries at the scene before being taken to hospital.


2020 Streatham stabbing, Attacker
The attacker was identified as Sudesh Mamoor Faraz Amman. He had been sentenced in 2018 by Judge Mark Lucraft to three years and four months in prison for disseminating terrorist material and collecting information that could be useful to a terrorist. A college student at the time of his arrest, he had shared an al-Qaeda magazine in a family WhatsApp group and told his siblings: "the Islamic State is here to stay". Amman also said to his girlfriend that she should kill her unbelieving parents.


2020 Streatham stabbing, Attacker
The head of the Metropolitan police counter terrorism command said Amman had a "fierce interest in violence and martyrdom" and that "his fascination with dying in the name of terrorism" was evident in a notepad found at his home. At the time of the Streatham incident, he had recently been released from prison. During his 2018 trial the prosecution stated that Amman "had discussed with his family, friends and girlfriend his strong and often extreme views on jihad, the kuffar, and his desire to carry out a terrorist attack".


2020 Streatham stabbing, Attacker
Following his release in January 2020 Amman was "under active counter-terrorism surveillance". According to The Guardian, the attacker was "considered to pose a serious risk, and was well known to the counter-terror authorities, he was also the subject of a live investigation".


2020 Streatham stabbing, Reactions
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson thanked the emergency services for responding to the incident, and said that his thoughts were "with the injured and all those affected". Mayor of London Sadiq Khan thanked the "police, security and emergency services staff for their swift and courageous response". Home Secretary Priti Patel said "My first thoughts are with the victims, our brave police and emergency services and their families".


2020 Streatham stabbing, Reactions
On 3 February the government announced that emergency legislation would be introduced to end the automatic release of prisoners convicted of terrorism from being released after serving half their sentence. Secretary of State for Justice Robert Buckland told the House of Commons that the new law would apply to current and future prisoners. Lord Carlile, a barrister and former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, suggested the government could face a legal challenge if the new legislation was applied retrospectively. The Terrorist Offenders Bill was presented to parliament on 11 February. On 12 February the Bill cleared all of the stages required for it to pass through the House of Commons, doing so without the need for a vote. The bill received Royal assent on 26 February, and went into effect, immediately preventing the automatic release of 50 convicted terrorists.


2020 Strømsgodset Toppfotball season
The 2020 season was Strømsgodset's fourteenth season back in Eliteserien since their promotion in the 2006 season.


2020 Strømsgodset Toppfotball season, Season events
Prior to the start of the season Tobias Gulliksen and Sondre Hanssen were promoted from the youth team.


2020 Strømsgodset Toppfotball season, Season events
On 12 June, the Norwegian Football Federation announced that a maximum of 200 home fans would be allowed to attend the upcoming seasons matches.


2020 Strømsgodset Toppfotball season, Season events
On 10 September, the Norwegian Football Federation cancelled the 2020 Norwegian Cup due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway.


2020 Strømsgodset Toppfotball season, Season events
On 30 September, the Minister of Culture and Gender Equality, Abid Raja, announced that clubs would be able to have crowds of 600 at games from 12 October.


2020 Strømsgodset Toppfotball season, Season events
On 28 November, Strømsgodset's matche against Odd on 2 December was postponed due to a positive COVID-19 case within the Odd squad and the whole squad having to quarantine.


2020 Strømsgodset Toppfotball season, Squad
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2020 Strømsgodset Toppfotball season, Squad, Out on loan
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.


2020 Stuttgart riot
The 2020 Stuttgart riot took place during the night of 21 June 2020 when hundreds fought street battles with police in Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. During the riots numerous shops were looted.


2020 Stuttgart riot
On 20 June at 23:30, police investigated a 17-year-old in Schlossgarten for drug offences, whereupon about 200-500 sided with the accused and started to throw rocks and bottles at the police officers. The rioters screamed "Fuck the Police" and "Allahu Akbar" in videos recorded. Some rioters had prepared by wearing balaclavas while looting shops. The police apprehended 24 suspects.


2020 Stuttgart riot
In the following weeks, police increased their presence in the city during weekends.


2020 Stuttgart riot
Three weeks later, there was further rioting where eleven people were apprehended.


2020 Stuttgart riot, Police response
Two hundred police out of the surrounding area were called to the state capital. About a dozen police were wounded in the fighting and a number of police vehicles were destroyed.


2020 Stuttgart riot, Suspects
During the night, 24 suspects were apprehended, of which 14 were less than 21 years old and 7 were under 18. Half the apprehended were German citizens, of which 3 had a migration background (German: Migrationshintergrund) meaning their parents were not German citizens. The others originated from a number of countries: Somalia, Bosnia and Afghanistan.


2020 Stuttgart riot, Suspects
14 July police apprehended two further people suspected in having taken part in the violence and plunder.


2020 Stuttgart riot, Suspects
At the beginning of November, 100 suspects were identified. 83 of these 100 suspects have a migration background. Several of the suspects were refugees.


2020 Stuttgart riot, Criminal investigation
According to police, extreme left activists obstructed the investigations by the police, who had asked the public for video recordings during the riots. The activists responded by flooding the police website with 7500 videos, unrelated to the Stuttgart riot, totalling more than 100GB to the police website to overload. The videos did not overload the police server but would waste police time as they had to be investigated.


2020 Stuttgart riot, Criminal investigation
The German police have made a number of suspect identifications using super recognisers.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix
The 2020 Styrian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Pirelli Großer Preis der Steiermark 2020) was a Formula One motor race that took place on 12 July 2020 at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Styria,  Austria. It was the second round of the 2020 Formula One World Championship. It was the first running of the Styrian Grand Prix, and was held exactly one week after the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix on the same track, due to the rescheduling of the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix
In the race, Lewis Hamilton won from pole position, ahead of his teammate Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen. The result saw Hamilton close to within 6 points of the championship leader, Bottas, and Mercedes extend their lead in the Constructors' Championship to 41 points.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Background, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The originally scheduled calendar for the 2020 championship was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed after the planned opening round in Australia was called off two days before the race was due to take place, prompting the FIA to draft a new calendar. The start of the championship was delayed until 5 July, with the Red Bull Ring hosting the Austrian Grand Prix as the opening round of the championship.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Background, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Organisers of the race signed a contract with Liberty Media, the sport's commercial rights holder, to host a second round at the circuit on 12 July (a week after the first race) to be known as the "Styrian Grand Prix". The race was named for Styria, the state of Austria that the Red Bull Ring is located in. The back-to-back Austrian races marked the first time that a country hosted back-to-back races in the same season since 1995 when Japan hosted the Pacific and Japanese Grands Prix. The race was also the first time in the sport's history that the same venue and circuit layout hosted back-to-back World Championship races.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Background, Car upgrades
Ferrari brought and introduced a wide range of updates to the Ferrari SF1000. The upgrades were originally scheduled for the Hungarian Grand Prix but were brought forward after a poor performance at the Austrian Grand Prix. Mercedes trialed a reliability upgrade by testing new gearbox components designed to solve the electrical problems at the first race of the season. McLaren used a new chin spoiler design.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Background, Championship standings before the race
After the first round at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Valtteri Bottas led the championship by 7 points from Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari with Lando Norris of McLaren a further 2 points behind in third place. Defending Drivers' Champion Lewis Hamilton was fourth in the standings, 13 points off the championship lead. In the Constructors' Championship, defending champions Mercedes led the championship with 37 points, McLaren was in second with 26 points with Ferrari placed third with 19 points.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Background, Entrants
The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race. Jack Aitken and Robert Kubica drove in the first practice session for Williams and Alfa Romeo Racing respectively. Aitken replaced George Russell, while Kubica replaced Antonio Giovinazzi.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Background, Tyres
The medium hardness selection of C2, C3 and C4 tyre compounds were made available for teams to use by Pirelli, the same compound selections used at the Austrian Grand Prix on the same circuit the week before.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Practice
The first practice session ended with Sergio Pérez fastest for Racing Point ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes's Valtteri Bottas. Lando Norris was given a three-place grid penalty after overtaking another car under yellow flag conditions, which came after Nicholas Latifi was forced to pull over to the side of the track with gearbox issues. Kevin Magnussen was unable to set a lap time during the session due to battery problems.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Practice
The second practice session ended with Verstappen fastest, followed by Bottas and Pérez. Daniel Ricciardo's session ended early when his Renault R.S.20 left the track at turn nine and crashed heavily into the barriers at the exit of the corner, bringing out the red flags. Ricciardo confirmed over the radio that he was fine and was taken to the circuit's medical centre where he was declared fit to race. Lewis Hamilton finished the session in sixth, seven-tenths adrift of teammate Bottas.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Practice
Alexander Albon recovered from a spin at turn three to record the seventh-fastest time, and complained about a "snappy" Red Bull RB16 – which then led to another spin into the gravel going through the turn 7–8 chicane with 15 minutes of the session to go. Lando Norris cited chest and back pain as the reason for doing fewer laps in practice than teammate Carlos Sainz Jr., however his condition had improved by the following morning.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Practice
The third practice session was cancelled due to heavy rain.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Qualifying
The session was the first entirely wet qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring since the 1998 Austrian Grand Prix and the first at the circuit where non-slick tyres were used since the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Q1 and Q2
The first qualifying session began at 15:46 local time, forty-six minutes after the session was originally scheduled to start. All drivers started on the wet compound tyres, and all would continue to use it for the entirety of qualifying. The track was extremely wet, with the cars prone to aquaplaning. The only major incident of the session came towards the end, when Antonio Giovinazzi lost control of his Alfa Romeo after turn seven; his car slid onto the grass and collided gently with a barrier, scattering some debris.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Q1 and Q2
Giovinazzi kept the engine running, but soon stopped at turn four, leading to the session being red-flagged with 13 seconds remaining. Giovinazzi was eliminated from Q1 along with Kimi Räikkönen, Sergio Pérez, Nicholas Latifi and Romain Grosjean, who had not set a lap due to an issue with his energy recovery system. George Russell reached Q2 for the first time in his career, the first time a Williams driver had achieved this since the 2018 Brazilian Grand Prix.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Q1 and Q2
The rain intensity increased during Q2 however the session proceeded without incident. Those eliminated were Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lance Stroll, Daniil Kvyat, and Kevin Magnussen.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Q3
Heavy rain continued into Q3 but gradually decreased over the course of the session. At various points, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Valtteri Bottas were on provisional pole position. In the end, Hamilton took pole with a lap time of 1:19:273, over 1.2 seconds faster than his nearest rival, Verstappen, who spun on his final attempt.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Q3
Carlos Sainz Jr. qualified third, the first driver to do so for McLaren on pace alone since Jenson Button at the 2014 British Grand Prix (Sainz's teammate Lando Norris had started third at the previous race, but had been promoted to that position after Hamilton received a penalty). Hamilton's teammate Bottas qualified in fourth place, followed by Esteban Ocon, Lando Norris, Alexander Albon, Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo, and Sebastian Vettel.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Post-qualifying
Norris's penalty issued during the first practice session demoted him from sixth to ninth on the grid. Three drivers were investigated for breaches of the sporting regulations after qualifying; Pérez for ignoring yellow flags during Q1, Räikkönen and Leclerc for breaches of red-flag protocol during Q1, and Leclerc again for impeding Kvyat during Q2. No action was taken regarding the first three allegations, however Leclerc was issued a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kvyat, demoting him from 11th to 14th on the grid.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Qualifying, Post-qualifying
On the morning of the race, Giovinazzi received a five place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change, whilst Romain Grosjean was forced to start from the pit lane due to a breach of parc fermé regulations by his team, who worked on his car for over 3 hours more than allowed by the regulations, without the presence of a scrutineer. Whilst the normal punishment in such cases is disqualification from the Grand Prix weekend, Grosjean avoided this as the team blamed an energy recovery system (ERS) water pump problem that had to be repaired in order to allow him to participate.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Opening laps
The race was run in dry conditions, in contrast to the entirely wet qualifying meaning all 20 drivers had a free choice of starting tyres as is permitted by  the Sporting Regulations. Lewis Hamilton maintained his lead from pole. At turn one Sebastian Vettel fell to 12th place behind George Russell and Lance Stroll. In an attempt to overtake his teammate on the inside of turn three, Charles Leclerc collided with Vettel, breaking Vettel's rear wing. The safety car was then deployed to clear debris from the turn three incident.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Opening laps
Both Ferraris entered the pits at the end of the opening lap and Vettel's car was retired from the race. Leclerc's car had suffered front wing and floor damage and his front wing was replaced. Racing resumed on lap four. Russell, running in 11th place, left the track at turn six and went into the gravel. He was able to continue racing but rejoined at the back of the field in 18th place.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Opening laps
At the end of lap four, Ferrari determined that the damage to Leclerc's car was too great to continue and he entered the pits to retire from the race. By lap eight, Carlos Sainz Jr. had fallen from third to fifth having been passed by Valtteri Bottas and Alexander Albon. On lap 14, Sergio Pérez entered the points positions by passing Lando Norris for tenth place, having started 17th.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Mid-race
On lap 24, second-placed Max Verstappen was the first driver to make a scheduled pit stop. On the following lap, Esteban Ocon entered the pits to retire from the race, his car suffering from a cooling issue. Race leader Hamilton pitted on lap 27, with teammate Bottas inheriting the lead. On lap 32, Sainz suffered a slow pit stop which would go on to cost him three positions, and two laps later Bottas made his first stop to hand the lead back to Hamilton. After all drivers had made their first stops, the order was Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas, Albon, Ricciardo, Stroll, Pérez, Sainz, Norris and Pierre Gasly.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Mid-race
Pérez began to move further forward after his pit stop, passing teammate Stroll on lap 46 and then Daniel Ricciardo two laps later to claim fifth place. Pérez then set a number of fastest laps whilst moving closer towards Albon in fourth. Gasly later became the first driver to make two pit stops, having started seventh but fallen to 13th on his hard-compound tyres. He would only recover to 15th by the end of the race. On lap 62 Sainz let Norris pass for eighth.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Closing laps
Bottas, who had been slowly catching Verstappen since the first round of pit stops, overtook him for second place on lap 66. The two cars battled through the remainder of the lap, with Verstappen briefly reclaiming the place, before Bottas overtook again on the following lap. Verstappen and ninth-placed Sainz then pitted with two laps remaining in attempts to claim the fastest lap of the race, both drivers having large enough gaps behind as to avoid losing positions. On the penultimate lap, Pérez attempted an overtake on Albon for fourth place at turn four.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Closing laps
The cars made contact resulting in Pérez breaking his front wing. The 15-second gap behind Pérez then began to close as the damage caused him to fall back. Stroll, who had been close behind Ricciardo for almost 30 laps, made an overtake attempt for sixth place at turn three, running deep and causing both drivers to take to the runoff area. Stroll took the position and the move caused Ricciardo to fall to eighth place behind Norris. On the final lap, Norris passed Stroll for sixth place on the straight after turn three, before catching the ailing Pérez at the final corner to take fifth.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Closing laps
Hamilton took the chequered flag to claim his first victory of the season and the 85th of his career, followed by Bottas and Verstappen to complete the podium, with Albon and Norris behind. Pérez, Stroll and Ricciardo crossed the finish line three-wide, separated by just over 0.2 seconds, but maintained those respective positions. Sainz finished ninth and claimed his first fastest lap in Formula One and the second consecutive fastest lap for McLaren. Sainz's fastest lap of 1:05 619  on lap 68 set a new race lap  record for the circuit. Daniil Kvyat claimed the final point in tenth place.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Post-race
Stroll was investigated by the race stewards for his penultimate-lap overtake on Ricciardo, however this was deemed a racing incident and no further action was taken. Ricciardo later described the move as "desperate" and stated that he expected Stroll to receive a penalty. Leclerc apologised for causing the opening-lap collision with Vettel, remarking "I am just disappointed in myself. I've done a very bad job today. I let the team down." Vettel stated he was "very surprised" that Leclerc attempted the overtake, noting that the team had intended to assess the performance of the updates brought to the SF1000 for the race.


2020 Styrian Grand Prix, Race, Race report, Post-race
After the race, Renault launched a formal protest to the stewards regarding the legality of the Racing Point RP20 and its alleged similarities to the previous season's Mercedes AMG F1 W10 EQ Power+.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix
The 2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix (officially known as the BMW M Grand Prix of Styria) was a Grand Prix motorcycle racing race held at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg on 23 August 2020. It was the sixth round of the 2020 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season and the fifth round of the 2020 MotoGP World Championship. It was the first running of the Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, and was held exactly one week after the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix on the same track, due to the rescheduling of the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The race was also the 900th premier class race.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix
In a dramatic race, Miguel Oliveira of Red Bull KTM Tech 3 won from Jack Miller (Pramac Racing) and Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) at the final corner, on the final lap to win his and his team's first MotoGP race. Oliveira is also the first Portuguese rider to win a Grand Prix race in the premier class. Oliveira's victory meant that ending the winning streaks for Ducati on Red Bull Ring - which is Ducati has won there 5 times.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix
For the first time since the 2016 Dutch TT, all classes were won by a first time winner in that class.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Background, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The opening rounds of the 2020 championship were heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Several Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed after the aborted opening round in Qatar, prompting the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme to draft a new calendar. However, the Austrian Grand Prix was not impacted by this change and kept its original date.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Background, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Organisers of the race signed a contract with Dorna Sports, the sport's commercial rights holder, to host a second round at the circuit on 23 August (a week after the first race) to be known as the "Styrian Grand Prix". The race was named for Styria, the state of Austria that the Red Bull Ring is located in. The race was also the second time in the sport's history that the same venue and circuit layout hosted back-to-back World Championship races.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Background, MotoGP Championship standings before the race
After the fourth round at the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix, Fabio Quartararo on 67 points, leads the championship by 11 points over Andrea Dovizioso with Maverick Viñales a further 19 points behind.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Background, MotoGP Championship standings before the race
In Teams' Championship, Petronas Yamaha SRT with 98 points, lead the championship from Monster Energy Yamaha, who have 86. Ducati Team sit 10 points behind the factory Yamaha in third, and are 16 points ahead of fourth-placed  KTM Factory Racing, who have 42 points, while Team Suzuki Ecstar sit 5th on 50 points.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Free practice
The first practice session ended with Jack Miller fastest for Pramac Racing ahead of Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso and Tech 3's Miguel Oliveira. The second practice session ended with Pol Espargaró fastest, followed by Nakagami and Joan Mir.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Free practice, Combined Free Practice 1-2-3
The top ten drivers (written in bold) qualified in Q2.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Free practice, Free Practice 4
The first three positions of the session were as follows.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Warm Up, MotoGP
The first three positions of the session are as follows.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race, Race Report (MotoGP), Initial Race
The race was run in dry conditions despite the clouds looming. On the opening lap, Joan Mir  got a fantastic launch from P3 to the lead the race from polesitter Pol Espargaro, with Miller also getting a great start from fourth on the grid. The Australian got past Espargaro by going up the inside at Turn 2. After running wide and gaining an advantage at Turn 1 on the opening lap Mir was forced to drop a position, thus Miller inherited the race lead. Championship leader Fabio Quartararo made a poor start, and dropped to P14 after running wide at Turn 1. Andrea Dovizioso made a solid start and was up to sixth on Lap 2. Takaaki Nakagami got past Pol Espargaro and the top three slowly pulling clear of the chasing pack.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race, Race Report (MotoGP), Initial Race
Lap 5 saw Mir lead the race with Miller and Nakagami half a second clear of Pol Espargaro and Alex Rins and that gap kept climbing as the race went ahead. On Lap 8 the leading trio were 1.4 clear, with the Yamahas dropping down the field. With 14 laps to go, Viñales slowed down and held his hand up to suggest something was wrong with his YZR-M1.Viñales continued but the Spaniard jumped off his Yamaha at Turn 1 in what looked like a brake failure. His machine smashed into the air-fence at Turn 1 and going up in flames. Viñales was able to walk away and brought the red flags out as the race came to a halt, with a 12-laps to go.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race, Race Report (MotoGP), Restart
The race began for a second time and Mir lead from pole, with Miller falling down from third. Pol Espargaro powered away from the line well but ran slightly wide into Turn 1, allowing Miller to regain position into Turn 2. Miller was leading Mir fought back on the exit but the Ducati rider held the inside line for Turn 6, with Nakagami dropping to seventh. With eight laps to go, Pol Espargaro set the fastest lap of the race.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race, Race Report (MotoGP), Restart
The KTM rider then made his move on Mir at Turn 3. Pol then attempted a pass up into Turn 1 but was wide, allowing Miller to  pass and Oliveira and Mir to close in. Mir was then wide at Turn 4, allowing Dovizioso to grab fourth as Miller and Oliveira . The top five were close, however Mir and Dovizioso were about to drop off the pace slightly with Doviziosio running wide again at Turn 9.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Race, Race Report (MotoGP), Restart
Heading onto the last lap, this was between two KTMs and a Ducati. Pol led onto the last lap and got a good run out of the first corner but braked too much defensively. This compromised his exit and Miller  made the move stick into the downhill right-hander. Miller held firm through the left-handers but Pol got the run up the hill and swerved to the inside and got underneath Miller. Miller braked late and dived underneath Pol. The duo went wide though and Oliveira, on his normal line, Oliveira got past Miller and Pol to seal a historic victory. Miller held onto second to pick up his second podium of the season, with Pol claiming P3.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Classification, MotoGP
The race, scheduled to be run for 28 laps, was red-flagged after 16 full laps due to an accident involving Maverick Viñales. The race was later restarted over 12 laps with the starting grid determined by the classification of the first part.


2020 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Championship standings after the race
Below are the standings for the top five riders, constructors, and teams after the round.


2020 Sudan floods
In September 2020, profuse and continuous rainfall in Sudan caused a devastating flood across 17 out of the 18 states Sudanese states with the Blue Nile reaching water levels not seen for nearly a century. It ranks among the most severe floods recorded in the region. A state of emergency was declared, and teams have worked to prevent damage to threatened archaeological sites. The flood affected more than 3,000,000 people, destroyed more than 100,000 homes, and left more than 100 people dead .


2020 Sudan floods, Event
The water level of the Nile River in Sudan rose and reached record levels, as floods entered homes and destroyed about 100,000 homes, and caused about 100 deaths. The level of the Blue Nile reached more than 17 metres, breaking all records. Floods caused by torrential monsoon rains mostly outside the country in neighbouring Ethiopia raised the Nile River by 17.5 metres (57 ft) in late August, the highest level it has reached in nearly a century, according to the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation. For the first time in history, the Pyramids of Meroë were threatened by flooding.


2020 Sudan floods, Event
The rates of floods and rain exceeded the records set in 1946 and 1988. Some experts, such as International Rivers, expect climate change to cause periodic bouts of drought and flooding in the future.


2020 Sudan floods, Response
The government led and coordinated the emergency response to the flood. The National Flood Mission Forces of the Humanitarian Aid Committee began, and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok confirmed that "the levels of the Nile and its tributaries this year, according to the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources, have been unprecedented since 1912." He also pointed out that this year's floods resulted in tragic and painful losses of life and property.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
The Sudanese Security and Defense Council declared a state of emergency throughout the country for a period of three months and has decided to consider Sudan a natural disaster area. The council has formed a supreme committee to prevent and address the effects of torrents and floods, which killed about 100 people and flooded more than 100 thousand homes since late July.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
The floodwaters may overrun and flood an ancient archaeological site in the country. Teams have organized sandbag walls and are pumping water out of the area in order to avoid damage to the ruins of Al-Bajrawiya, formerly an ancient city of the two-thousand-year-old Meroitic empire and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Previous floods have never affected the site before.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
The floods have thus far affected more than 500,000 people in at least 16 states across the country. This has left thousands of people homeless. Tents have been put up to accommodate the displaced in Sudan's capital, Khartoum.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
Water-borne diseases have rapidly increased since the floods. Fever, diarrhea, and stomach infections are rampant as a result of dirty drinking water. Sudan was facing a health crisis even before the flood emergency. Pharmacies have been reporting shortages of medicine, and many hospitals lack adequate equipment.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
The United Nations has increased food aid to the country while hundreds of thousands of Sudanese have been forced to live in desperate makeshift camps. The situation has been aggravated by the country's economic crisis and political deadlock. The government announced a public emergency after its currency abduptly declined in recent weeks. Prices of basic foods such as bread and sugar have risen in price by over 50 percent over the past few weeks.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
In September 2020, Sudanese Economic Minister Hiba Mohamed Ali said that the government had dedicated $6.15 million to help alleviate victims of the floods. Furthermore, less than half of the $1.6 billion needed for the country's humanitarian relief plan has been funded thus far.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
The United Nations said humanitarian actors might run out of funds necessary to continue operations. The country is fighting multiple catastrophes, including warfare and an upsurge of COVID-19 and polio cases. The worst-hit states were North Darfur, Khartoum, Blue Nile, West Darfur and Sennar. In addition, vast areas of arable land in the affected states are flooded. The damage to farms could endanger food security, particularly in Khartoum, where over 1.4 million people are in desperate need of food.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
On 30 September 2020, the Food and Agriculture Organization said that the floods in Sudan have affected nearly one third of cultivated land and about 3 million people from agricultural households. About 2.2 million hectares of cropland has been flooded and 108,000 head of livestock lost, according to an FAO assessment. Some 1.1 million tonnes of grain was destroyed in planted areas, most of it sorghum, a staple in Sudan, it added.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
Women from some of the nearly 600,000 affected agricultural households told the FAO they were cutting down to one small meal per day after their sorghum was washed away just before harvest. Commercial crops including bananas and mangos have also been badly hit. The floods have also destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said they have affected about 150,000 refugees and displaced people. The United Nations estimates that 9.6 million people face acute food insecurity in Sudan, the highest number on record.


2020 Sudan floods, Response, State of emergency
In addition, the UN said that severe flooding in South Sudan has forced more than 600,000 people to flee their homes since July.


2020 Sugar Bowl
The 2020 Sugar Bowl was a college football bowl game played on January 1, 2020, between the Georgia Bulldogs and Baylor Bears, with kickoff scheduled for 8:45 p.m. EST (7:45 p.m. local CST) on ESPN. It was the 86th edition of the Sugar Bowl, and one of the 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 FBS football season. Sponsored by insurance provider Allstate, the game was officially known as the Allstate Sugar Bowl.


2020 Sugar Bowl, Teams
The game matched the Georgia Bulldogs from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Baylor Bears from the Big 12 Conference. This was the fifth all-time meeting between the two programs; the Bulldogs had won each of the prior four meetings, most recently in 1989.


2020 Sugar Bowl, Teams, Georgia Bulldogs
Georgia entered the game with an 11–2 record (7–1 in conference). They finished atop the SEC's East Division and advanced to the SEC Championship Game, which they lost to LSU, 37–10. As LSU was selected to the College Football Playoff, Georgia was invited as the SEC representative to the Sugar Bowl. The Bulldogs were 3–1 against ranked opponents, defeating Notre Dame, Florida, and Auburn while losing to LSU. Their only other loss was to South Carolina.


2020 Sugar Bowl, Teams, Georgia Bulldogs
This was Georgia's eleventh Sugar Bowl (the third-most of any team); they had a 4–6 record in prior editions of the bowl. It was also Georgia's second consecutive Sugar Bowl, following their 2018 team's loss to Texas in the 2019 edition, 28–21.


2020 Sugar Bowl, Teams, Baylor Bears
Baylor also entered the game with an 11–2 record (8–1 in conference). They finished tied with Oklahoma atop the Big 12, with the Sooners then defeating the Bears in the Big 12 Championship Game, 30–23 in overtime. As Oklahoma was selected to the College Football Playoff, Baylor was invited as the Big 12 representative to the Sugar Bowl. The Bears were 0–2 against ranked opponents, falling to Oklahoma twice.


2020 Sugar Bowl, Teams, Baylor Bears
This was Baylor's second Sugar Bowl, and their first since their 1956 team won the 1957 edition over Tennessee, 13–7.


2020 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup
The 2020 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup was scheduled to be the 29th edition of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, the annual men's international invitational field hockey tournament in Malaysia. It was scheduled to be held in April 2020 at the Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh, Malaysia. Following the COVID-19 pandemic the tournament was postponed to be held from 24 September to 3 October 2020. On 2 May 2020 the tournament was officially cancelled.


2020 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, Teams
Pakistan were the first team to confirm their participation in the tournament. The other teams were announced on 20 January 2020.


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms
The 2020 Summer Olympic pictograms are visual graphic symbols used to represent each sport in competition games of the 2020 Summer Olympics.


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms, Formation
The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee (TOCOG) produced the official sports pictograms of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, due to the need to communicate visually to an increasingly international group of athletes and spectators, while paying great respect to the  Olympic sport pictograms, which were first introduced at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms, Formation
The designer team led by Masaaki Hiromura was in charge of the creation of the Official "Olympic Games sport pictograms". All rights, including copyrights, regarding the produced the Official Pictograms belong to the TOCOG. After the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it is expected to be under the jurisdiction of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms, Works
The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 sport pictograms are designed to subtly communicate the characteristics and athleticism of each sport, as well as artistically highlighting the dynamism of athletes.


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms, Works
Hiromura reveals in a newspaper interview that he needs to go back to the origin of pictograms, "information transmission", and to be simple. So that, for example, for golf, boxing, and other things that can be expressed only by the upper body he does not draw the lower body. On the other hand, he says he pursued realism and activity in simplicity. The evolution of the pictograms to show the dynamics and reality of athletes is, for example, that "I studied body movements and made the torso white in many sports. It is better not to draw the torso. I noticed that the condition of the abdominal muscles and the twist of the waist are easily transmitted."


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms, Works
A total of 50 pictogram designs for the 33 sports of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic were produced (for example, five for the individual disciplines within cycling).


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms, Opening ceremony
The 2020 Summer Olympics opening ceremony included a video sequence in which a performer represented each in turn of the pictograms. Time Out described it as "a funny, witty performance reminiscent of a typical Japanese TV game show".


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms, The design of Paralympic pictograms and kinetic sport pictograms
The Tokyo 2020 "Paralympic Games sport pictograms" were also handled by Masaaki Hiromura's team, and 23 pictogram designs were produced for the 22 sports of the  2020 Tokyo Paralympics (there were separate pictograms for road cycling and track cycling, within the sport of cycling). Emphasis was placed on expressing a sense of dynamism by studying the rules of the Paralympic Games, how to use the body of para-athletes, and equipment such as wheelchairs for para-athletes.


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms, The design of Paralympic pictograms and kinetic sport pictograms
When both the Olympic Sport Pictograms and the Paralympic Sport Pictograms of Tokyo 2020 are collectively referred to, the name of the Tokyo 2020 Sport Pictograms is often used.


2020 Summer Olympic pictograms, The design of Paralympic pictograms and kinetic sport pictograms
Furthermore, in 2020, "Kinetic Sport Pictograms", which are developments of the sport pictograms based on dynamic concepts such as motion-designed logomark, were unveiled. This work was supervised by video designer Kota Iguchi , and the product could be viewed on the digital signage inside the stadium.


2020 Summer Olympics
The 2020 Summer Olympics (Japanese: 2020年夏季オリンピック, Hepburn: Nisen Nijū-nen Kaki Orinpikku), officially the Games of the XXXII Olympiad (第三十二回オリンピック競技大会, Dai Sanjūni-kai Orinpikku Kyōgi Taikai) and branded as Tokyo 2020 (東京2020, Tōkyō Nii Zero Nii Zero), was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.


2020 Summer Olympics
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7 September 2013. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the event was postponed to 2021 in March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first such instance in the history of the Olympic Games (previous games had been cancelled but not rescheduled). However, the event retained the Tokyo 2020 name for marketing and branding purposes.


2020 Summer Olympics
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 Summer Paralympics were held between 24 August and 5 September 2021, 16 days after the completion of the Olympics.


2020 Summer Olympics
The 2020 Games were the fourth Olympic Games to be held in Japan, following the Tokyo 1964 (Summer), Sapporo 1972 (Winter) and Nagano 1998 (Winter) games. Tokyo is the first city in Asia to hold the Summer 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.


2020 Summer Olympics
New events were introduced in existing sports for 2020, 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 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.


2020 Summer Olympics
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 88). 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 65 medals, becoming the first nation at the Summer Olympics to increase or equal their total medals won in the two Games subsequent to hosting them.


2020 Summer Olympics
The Russian delegation competing as the ROC (not to be confused with the Republic of China (Taiwan) which competed as Chinese Taipei, not 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 won their first-ever Olympic medals.


2020 Summer Olympics, Bidding process
The three candidate cities were Tokyo, Istanbul, and Madrid. The applicant cities of Baku and Doha were not promoted to candidate status. A bid from Rome was withdrawn.


2020 Summer Olympics, Bidding process, Host city selection
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to select the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics on 7 September 2013, at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, using an exhaustive ballot system. None of the candidate cities won more than 50% of the votes in the first round; Madrid and Istanbul were tied for second place, so a runoff vote was held to determine which of the two cities would be eliminated. The final vote was a head-to-head contest between Tokyo and Istanbul. Tokyo was selected by 60 votes to 36, gaining at least the 49 votes required for a majority.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
In January 2020, concerns were raised about the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on athletes and visitors to the Olympic Games. Tokyo organizers insisted they were monitoring the spread of the disease to minimize its effects on preparations for the Olympics. The IOC stated that in 2020, their Japanese partners and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "made it very clear that Japan could not manage a postponement beyond next summer [2021] at the latest".


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Unlike the case for Zika virus during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted directly between humans, posing tougher challenges for the organizers to counteract the infectious disease and host a safe and secure event. Also unlike the case for H1N1 "swine flu" during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, COVID-19 has a higher fatality rate, and there was no effective vaccine until December 2020.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
In a February 2020 interview, Conservative London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey argued that London would be able to host the Olympic Games at the former 2012 Olympic venues should the Games need to be moved because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike criticized Bailey's comment as inappropriate.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
In early 2021, officials in the U.S. state of Florida offered to host the delayed Games in their state, while John Coates, the IOC vice president in charge of the Tokyo Olympics, said the Games would open even if the city and other parts of Japan were under a state of emergency because of COVID-19.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Estimates by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Kyoto University predicted that states of emergency might be required during the Games. The reports published at the Ministry of Health experts' panel also showed new patients increasing to 10,000 if the Games were to allow spectators.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Qualifying event cancellation and postponement
Concerns about the pandemic began to affect qualifying events in early 2020. Some that were due to take place in February were moved to alternative locations to address concerns about travelling to the affected areas, particularly China. For example, the women's basketball qualification was played in Belgrade, Serbia, instead of Foshan, China. The Asia & Oceania boxing qualification tournament, which was originally planned to be held from 3–14 February in Wuhan, China (the location of the original outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic), instead took place in Amman, Jordan, at the beginning of March.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Qualifying event cancellation and postponement
The third round of the women's football qualification tournament was also affected, as the group matches formerly scheduled to be held in China were moved to Australia. The European boxing qualification began on 14 March 2020 in London, United Kingdom, but was suspended after two days of competition before being rescheduled for April 2021. It eventually resumed in June 2021 but was moved to Paris, France, because of renewed concerns over travel to the United Kingdom.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Qualifying event cancellation and postponement
Other qualifying events that were due to take place in March to June 2020 began to be postponed until later in the year and mid-2021 as part of a wider suspension of international sporting competitions in response to the pandemic. A multitude of Olympic sports were affected, including archery, baseball, cycling, handball, judo, rowing, sailing, volleyball, and water polo.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Effect on doping tests
Mandatory doping tests were being severely restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. European anti-doping organizations raised concerns that blood and urine tests could not be performed and that mobilizing the staff necessary to do so before the end of the pandemic would be a health risk. Despite the need for extensive testing to take place in advance of the Games, the World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA) stated that public health and safety were their topmost priorities. The Chinese anti-doping agency temporarily ceased testing on 3 February 2020, with a planned resumption of phased testing towards the end of the month, and the anti-doping organizations in the United States, France, Great Britain, and Germany had reduced their testing activities by the end of March.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Postponement to 2021
The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOG) released a statement on 2 March 2020, confirming that preparations for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics were "continuing as planned". On 23 March, both Canada and Australia indicated that they would withdraw from the Games if they were not postponed by a year. On the same day, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe stated he would support a proposed postponement, citing that ensuring athlete safety was "paramount," and veteran IOC member and former vice president Dick Pound said that he expected the Games to be postponed.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Postponement to 2021
The IOC and TOCOG released a joint statement on 24 March 2020, announcing that the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics would be rescheduled to a date "beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021". They stated that the Games could "stand as a beacon of hope to the world during these troubled times", and that the Olympic flame could become "the light at the end of the tunnel in which the world finds itself at present". Prime Minister Abe stated that IOC president Thomas Bach responded "with 100% agreement" to his proposal to delay the Games. For continuity and marketing purposes, it was agreed that the Games would still be branded as Tokyo 2020 despite the change in schedule.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Postponement to 2021
On 30 March 2020, the IOC and TOCOG announced that they had reached an agreement on the new dates for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which would begin with the opening ceremony on 23 July 2021 and end with the closing ceremony on 8 August 2021. The subsequent Winter Olympics in Beijing are scheduled to begin on 4 February 2022, less than six months later.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Postponement to 2021
Shortly before the postponement was confirmed, the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organizers formed a task force named "Here We Go" with the remit to address any issues arising from postponing the Games, such as sponsorship and accommodation. The organizers confirmed that all athletes who had already qualified for Tokyo 2020 would keep their qualification slots.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
Health experts expressed concern in April 2020 that the Games might have to be cancelled if the pandemic should persist. In an interview, the then president of TOCOG and former Japanese prime minister, Yoshirō Mori, asserted that the Games would be "scrapped" if they could not go ahead in 2021. On 29 April 2020, Prime Minister Abe stated that the Games "must be held in a way that shows the world has won its battle against the coronavirus pandemic".


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
Thomas Bach acknowledged in an interview on 20 May 2020, that the job of reorganizing the Tokyo Games was "a mammoth task" and also admitted that the event would have to be cancelled altogether if it could not take place in the summer of 2021. However, both Mori and Bach expressed optimism about the Games going ahead.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
A member of the Japanese COVID-19 Advisory Committee on the basic action policy co-authored a British Medical Journal editorial, which stated, "holding Tokyo 2020 for domestic political and economic purposes—ignoring scientific and moral imperatives—is contradictory to Japan's commitment to global health and human security".


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
On 21 January 2021, multiple sources reported that the Japanese government had "privately concluded" that the Games would have to be cancelled. The government dismissed the claims, stating that the reports were "categorically untrue". The new Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga confirmed on 19 February that the G7 had given unanimous support for the postponed Games to go ahead as scheduled.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
It was reported in April 2021, just three months before the start of the Games, that there was still the option to cancel the Tokyo Olympics with the country having vaccinated less than 1% of its population, with tens of thousands of volunteers expected to take part and athletes not being required to quarantine after arriving in Japan.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
Public support for the Games in Japan decreased significantly amid a 2021 surge in COVID-19 cases in the country. Multiple organizations of medical professionals voiced oppositions to the Games, while an opinion poll in April 2021 saw 40% of participants support the cancellation of the Games, and 33% support a second postponement. In May 2021, 83% of those polled supported the cancellation or postponement of the Games. The Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association called for the cancellation, stating that hospitals in Tokyo "have their hands full and have almost no spare capacity" in an open letter to the prime minister. At least nine out of 47 elected governors supported the cancellation of the Games. Nearly 37% of Japanese companies surveyed supported the cancellation of the Games, and 32% supported postponement.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
Kenji Utsunomiya, who had previously run for Governor of Tokyo, collected more than 351,000 signatures on a petition calling for the organisers to "prioritise life" over the Olympics. Japanese writers Jiro Akagawa and Fuminori Nakamura also called for the Games to be postponed or cancelled.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
On 26 May 2021, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which is a local sponsor of the Games, published an editorial calling for Prime Minister Suga to "calmly and objectively assess the situation and decide on the cancellation of the event this summer."


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
On 4 June it was reported that Japanese sponsors proposed to the organisers for "the Games to be postponed for several months," citing a comment by a corporate sponsor senior executive: "It just makes much, much more sense from our perspective to hold the Games when there are more vaccinated people, the weather is cooler and maybe public opposition is lower."


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
In July 2021, it was announced that all events in Tokyo were to be held behind closed doors with no spectators due to a new state of emergency. A poll by the Asahi Shimbun found that 55% of those surveyed supported the cancellation of the Olympics, and 68% felt that organisers would not be able to suitably control COVID-19 at the Games.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
The decision was also detrimental to local sponsors, which had planned in-person presences to promote their products during the Games; an executive of official sponsor Toyota stated that the company had pulled a television advertising campaign it had planned for the Games in Japan, citing that the Olympics were "becoming an event that has not gained the public's understanding."


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Calls for cancellation
Had the games been cancelled, it would have been the first time since World War II that an Olympic event had been called off and the first games to be scrapped due to circumstances unrelated to war. A complete cancellation would have also cost Japan ¥4.52 trillion (US$41.5 billion), based on operating expenses and loss of tourism activity.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Costs and insurance
According to an estimate conducted by professor emeritus Katsuhiro Miyamoto of Kansai University and reported by the NHK in March 2020, the cost of delaying the 2020 Olympics by one year would be 640.8 billion yen (US$5.8 billion), taking maintenance expenditures for the unused facilities into account.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Costs and insurance
The Nomura Research Institute estimated that cancelling the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2021 would cost around 1.81 trillion yen ($17 billion), less than the economic damages projected if another state of emergency is declared, noting that a decision to hold the games "should be made based on the impact on infection risks, not from the standpoint of economic loss".


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Costs and insurance
The Tokyo Games were protected through the commercial insurance marketplace Lloyd's of London, by global reinsurers Munich Re and Swiss Re. The IOC takes out around $800 million of insurance for each Summer Olympics, with the total amount of loss insured for the 2020 Games likely to be more than $2 billion. The disruption caused by postponing the Games was covered by the insurance policy, with those likely to make claims for their financial losses including local organizers, sponsors, hospitality firms, and travel providers.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Costs and insurance
Holders of tickets purchased from overseas prior to postponement were entitled to refunds for both Olympic and Paralympic ticket purchases, except for the costs of cancelled hotel bookings. Although about 600,000 Olympic tickets and 300,000 Paralympic tickets were eligible to be refunded, organizers said that they would not release the total costs of the refunds.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Costs and insurance
Reuters quoted industry sources who estimated that the Tokyo Olympics Committee had taken out US$500–800 million in insurance, and that after accounting for costs such as rebooking sporting venues and the Olympic Village, little of that payout would be available to recoup the proceeds of lost and refunded ticket sales. The local organizers are responsible for ticket sales and use them to defray the costs of holding the games; ticket sales were expected to bring in approximately US$800 million, but actual sales were close to zero.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Public opinion and COVID-19 effect during and after the Games
Prior to the Tokyo Olympics being held, many Japanese people were negative about hosting the event, but their attitudes had become more positive towards the end of the Games. According to a public opinion poll conducted jointly by the Nippon News Network and the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, which targeted Japanese citizens at the end of the Olympics, 38% of respondents said that it was possible to hold the Olympics in a safe manner against COVID-19, while 55% said that it was not possible. However, 64% answered that it was good that the Tokyo Games had gone ahead, while 28% answered that they wished the event had not been held. Of the respondents, 61% were glad the event had been held without spectators and only 12% said that spectators should have been allowed.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Public opinion and COVID-19 effect during and after the Games
On 29 July, less than a week into the Games, journalist Masaki Kubota reported his analysis of the Japanese people's perspective on the Olympics, which he believed was greatly influenced by the change in the way the Japanese news media reported on the Games. He pointed out that many Japanese news media had insisted on canceling the Olympics, citing fears that COVID-19 would spread, but once Japanese athletes started winning medals, the media changed their reporting policy and began livening up the Olympics, which had the effect of altering public opinion in Japan.


2020 Summer Olympics, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Public opinion and COVID-19 effect during and after the Games
Once the Tokyo Olympics were underway, followed by the Tokyo Paralympics, there was a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases in Japan, especially those caused by the Delta variant. On 26 July, there were 60,157 cases detected in Japan, breaking the record of 44,961 cases recorded on 10 May. On 9 August, one day after the Olympics had ended, daily cases in Japan reached 100,000 for the first time, and new cases continued to increase until the peak on 23 August, when 156,931 cases were recorded.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation
The Tokyo Organizing Committee was originally headed by former Japanese prime minister Yoshirō Mori, but he resigned in February 2021 due to backlash from sexist comments about women in meetings. Seiko Hashimoto was chosen to succeed him. Tamayo Marukawa, Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, was responsible for overseeing the preparations on behalf of the Japanese government.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government set aside a fund of ¥400 billion (more than US$3.67 billion) to cover the cost of hosting the Games. The Japanese government was considering easing airspace restrictions to allow an increased slot capacity at both Haneda and Narita airports. A new railway line was planned to link both airports through an expansion of Tokyo Station, cutting travel time from Tokyo Station to Haneda from 30 minutes to 18 minutes, and from Tokyo Station to Narita from 55 minutes to 36 minutes; funded primarily by private investors, the line would cost ¥400 billion. The East Japan Railway Company (JR East) was also planning a new route near Tamachi to Haneda Airport.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation
There were plans to fund the accelerated completion of the Central Circular Route, Tokyo Gaikan Expressway, and Ken-Ō Expressway, and the refurbishment of other major expressways in the area. The Yurikamome automated transit line was also to be extended from its existing terminal at Toyosu Station to a new terminal at Kachidoki Station, passing the site of the Olympic Village, although the line was not expected to have adequate capacity to serve major events in the Odaiba area on its own.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation
In April 2018, the Tokyo Organizing Committee signed a partnership with the International Labour Organization to ensure decent work in the preparation of and during the 2020 Olympic Games.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation
In June 2020, the chief executive of the Organizing Committee, Toshirō Mutō, stated that the committee was exploring options for streamlining the Games to achieve cost savings. On 25 September, the IOC and Tokyo Organizing Committee agreed to a suite of measures to simplify the Games' logistics, including a cut to non-athlete staff, use of online meetings, and streamlined transport, among others. The committee also outlined areas it would be exploring in order to maintain the health and safety of all participants.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Venues and infrastructure
In February 2012, it was announced that Tokyo's former National Stadium, the central venue for the 1964 Summer Olympics, would undergo a ¥100 billion renovation for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Summer Olympics. In November 2012, the Japan Sport Council announced that it was taking bids for proposed stadium designs. Of the 46 finalists, Zaha Hadid Architects was awarded the project, which would replace the old stadium with a new 80,000-seat stadium. There was criticism of the Zaha Hadid design—which was compared to a bicycle helmet and regarded as clashing with the surrounding Meiji Shrine—and widespread disapproval of the costs, even with attempts to revise and "optimize" the design.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Venues and infrastructure
In June 2015, the government announced plans to reduce the new stadium's permanent capacity to 65,000 in its athletics configuration (although with the option to add up to 15,000 temporary seats for football) as a further cost-saving measure. The original plan to build a retractable roof was also abandoned. At the end of 2015, as a result of public opposition to the increasing costs of the new stadium (which had reached ¥252 billion), the government chose to reject Zaha Hadid's design entirely and selected a new design by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Venues and infrastructure
Inspired by traditional temples and with a lower profile, Kuma's design had a budget of ¥149 billion. The changes meant the new stadium could not be completed in time for the 2019 Rugby World Cup as originally intended. The National Stadium, which was inaugurated on 21 December 2019, was named the Olympic Stadium for the duration of the Tokyo Games.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Venues and infrastructure
In October 2018, the Board of Audit issued a report stating that the total cost of the Olympic venues could exceed US$25 billion.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Venues and infrastructure
Of the 33 competition venues in Tokyo, 28 are within 8 kilometers (5 miles) of the Olympic Village, with eleven new venues to be constructed. On 16 October 2019, the IOC announced that there were plans to re-locate the marathon and racewalking events to Sapporo for heat concerns. The plans were made official on 1 November 2019 after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike accepted the IOC's decision, despite her belief that the events should have remained in Tokyo.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Security
In December 2018, the Japanese government chose to ban drones from flying over venues being used for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. A similar ban was also imposed for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which Japan also hosted.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Volunteers
Applications for volunteering at the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games were accepted beginning on 26 September 2018. By 18 January 2019, a total of 204,680 applications had been received by the Tokyo Organizing Committee. Interviews to select the requisite number of volunteers began in February 2019, with training scheduled to take place in October 2019. The volunteers at the venues were to be known as "Field Cast", and the volunteers in the city were to be known as "City Cast".


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Volunteers
These names were chosen from a shortlist of four from an original 150 pairs of names; the other three shortlisted names were "Shining Blue" and "Shining Blue Tokyo", "Games Anchor" and "City Anchor", and "Games Force" and "City Force". The names were chosen by the people who had applied to be volunteers at the Games.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Volunteers
As of early June 2021, approximately 10,000 out of the 80,000 registered volunteers resigned from the Games. Media attributed the rise in pandemic cases as the reason for massive quitting. More volunteer assignments were expected to be cancelled due to the spectator ban.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Medals
In February 2017, the Tokyo Organizing Committee announced an electronics recycling program in partnership with Japan Environmental Sanitation Center and NTT Docomo, soliciting donations of electronics such as mobile phones to be reclaimed as materials for the medals. Aiming to collect eight tonnes of metals to produce the medals for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, collection boxes were deployed at public locations and NTT Docomo retail shops in April 2017. A design competition for the medals was launched in December of that year.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Medals
In May 2018, the organizing committee reported that they had obtained half the required 2,700 kilograms of bronze but were struggling to obtain the required amount of silver; although bronze and silver medals purely utilize their respective materials, IOC requirements mandate that gold medals utilize silver as a base. The collection of bronze was completed in November 2018, with the remainder estimated to have been completed by March 2019.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Medals
On 24 July 2019 (one year ahead of the originally scheduled opening ceremony), the designs of the medals were unveiled. The medals for the Olympic and Paralympic Games were designed by Junichi Kawanishi following a nationwide competition. A new feature shared with the Paralympic medals is that the ribbons contain one, two, or three silicone convex lines to distinguish gold, silver, and bronze medals, respectively.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Torch relay
The slogan of the 2020 Summer Olympics torch relay is "Hope Lights Our Way".


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Torch relay
As determined by a 2009 IOC ruling that banned international torch relays for any future Olympic Games, the 2020 Summer Olympics torch was scheduled to only visit the two countries of Greece and the host nation Japan. The first phase of the relay began on 12 March 2020, with the traditional flame lighting ceremony at the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece. The torch then travelled to Athens, where the Greek leg of the relay culminated in a handover ceremony at the Panathenaic Stadium on 19 March, during which the torch was transferred to the Japanese contingent.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Torch relay
The flame was placed inside a special lantern and transported from Athens International Airport on a chartered flight to Higashimatsushima in Japan. The torch was then expected to begin the second phase of its journey on 20 March, as it traveled for one week around the three most affected areas of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami—Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima—where it would go on display under the heading "Flame of Recovery". After leaving Naraha on 26 March, the torch would commence its main relay around Japan, incorporating all 47 prefectural capitals.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Torch relay
After the decision to postpone the Games was made, the torch was placed again in a special lantern on display in the city of Fukushima for a month. After that, the lantern was transferred to the Tokyo prefecture, where it was kept safe until the restart of the relay in 2021. On 23 July 2020 (one year ahead of the rescheduled opening ceremony), a promotional video was released featuring Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee carrying the lantern inside Japan National Stadium, drawing comparisons between emergence from the pandemic and her own return to sport after being diagnosed with leukemia. On 20 August 2020, it was announced that the torch relay would begin again in Naraha, Fukushima on 25 March 2021, nearly a year later than originally planned.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Torch relay
The relay ended at Tokyo's National Stadium (Olympic Stadium) on 23 July, with tennis player Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic cauldron at the finale of the opening ceremony. The cauldron lit in the Olympic Stadium was only used during the Opening and Closing ceremonies: a separate cauldron was lit on the Tokyo waterfront for public view at the Yume no Ohashi bridge in Odaiba.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Biosecurity protocols
In February 2021, the IOC began releasing "playbooks" containing details on planned COVID-19 biosecurity protocols for athletes, officials, the press, and other staff, including standard protocols such as practicing social distancing, hygiene, the wearing of face masks (outside of training and competition for athletes), and being restricted from visiting bars, restaurants, shops, and other tourist areas around Greater Tokyo Area, or using public transport unless otherwise permitted. Participants would be asked to use Japan's COCOA Exposure Notification app and would be tested at least every four days.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Biosecurity protocols
Athletes who tested positive would be unable to compete and could be quarantined at a government facility (although leeway would be given in the event of false positives). Close contacts would also need to test negative in order to be cleared for competition. Athletes would be discouraged from "excessive" celebrations because the actions could spread infected droplets. The playbooks were criticized in a paper published by The New England Journal of Medicine in May 2021, for lacking "scientifically rigorous risk assessment" and failing to "distinguish the various levels of risk faced by athletes". The playbook stated that the athletes were required to arrive up to five days prior to the start of the competition and to leave within 48 hours of being eliminated from their sport or the conclusion of the competitions.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Biosecurity protocols
The IOC recommended the vaccination of athletes against COVID-19 if vaccines were available to them, but this was not a prerequisite for participation and the IOC advised against athletes "jumping the queue" in order to obtain priority over essential populations. On 12 March 2021, Thomas Bach announced that in nations where they were approved for use, the Chinese Olympic Committee had offered to cover the costs of the Chinese CoronaVac and Sinopharm vaccines for athletes competing in the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2022 Winter Olympics, and would purchase two doses for their nation's general public for each vaccinated athlete. On 6 May 2021, Pfizer announced that it would donate doses of its vaccine to NOCs competing in Tokyo.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Biosecurity protocols
Approximately 93,000 athletes and officials were exempt from the quarantine rules upon arriving in Japan, provided that they remained in areas separated from the local population. With around 300,000 local staff and volunteers entering and exiting these bubbles, and 20,000 vaccine doses allocated for this group, this led to concerns of COVID-19 spreading both during the Games and when teams returned to their countries.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Biosecurity protocols
Due to international travel restrictions, the organizing committee announced in March 2021 that no international guests (including spectators) would be allowed to attend the Games. As per existing guidance for spectator sports in Japan, spectators would be asked to refrain from cheering or shouting. On 19 June 2021, Governor Koike announced that plans for public viewing events for the Games had been scrapped, in order to use the planned venues (such as Yoyogi Park) as mass vaccination sites instead. On 21 June, it was announced that all venues would be capped at a maximum of 10,000 ticketed spectators or 50% capacity, whichever was lower.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Biosecurity protocols
On 2 July 2021, the new TOCOG president Seiko Hashimoto warned that there was still a possibility of the Games being held behind closed doors because of rising COVID-19 cases in the country. Japan's slow vaccination rate had been of particular concern. A simulation run by the University of Tokyo in May 2021 projected that a new wave of infections could peak in mid-October if the Games went on after the existing state of emergency in Tokyo had expired.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Biosecurity protocols
On 8 July 2021, after Tokyo had recorded 920 new COVID-19 cases (its highest increase since May), Prime Minister Suga declared a new state of emergency in the Tokyo area from 12 July through 22 August (ending only two days before the Paralympics' opening ceremony), and announced that all events at venues in the area would therefore be held behind closed doors with no spectators permitted. Hashimoto stated that "it is extremely regrettable that the Games will be staged in a very limited manner in the face of the spread of novel coronavirus infections." IOC President Thomas Bach stated that "we will support any measure which is necessary to have a safe and secure Olympic and Paralympic Games for the Japanese people and all the participants."


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Biosecurity protocols
The announcement stated that spectators would still be allowed at events being held outside of Tokyo, subject to the approval by local health authorities and the aforementioned 50%/10,000-spectator limit. The prefectures of Fukushima, Hokkaido and Ibaraki announced that they would prohibit spectators at events held in the areas. The opening ceremony was expected to be limited to fewer than 1,000 VIP guests, including IOC representatives and dignitaries, while some events did allow members of other competing delegations to occupy spectator seats as well. School students were invited to watch football matches in Ibaraki.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Biosecurity protocols
On 16 July, it was reported that Bach had asked Prime Minister Suga about the possibility that restrictions on spectators could be eased later on if COVID-19 conditions were to improve in Tokyo. However, on 2 August, Suga announced that all existing state of emergency declarations would be extended through 31 August, and be extended to Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, and parts of Osaka.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Ticketing
The opening ceremony tickets were expected to range from ¥12,000 to ¥300,000, with a maximum price of ¥130,000 for the finals of the athletics track and field events. The average ticket price was ¥7,700, with half the tickets being sold for up to ¥8,000. A symbolic ticket price of ¥2,020 was expected for families, groups resident in Japan, and in conjunction with a school program. Tickets would be sold through 40,000 shops in Japan and by mail order to Japanese addresses through the internet. International guests, had they been allowed, would have needed to visit Japan during the sales period, or arrange to buy tickets through a third party such as a travel agent.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Ticketing
Tickets went on general sale in Japan in the autumn of 2019 and were expected to be sold globally from June 2020; however, this plan was suspended when the Games were postponed on 24 March 2020. The Tokyo Organizing Committee confirmed that tickets already purchased would remain valid for the same sessions according to the new schedule and that refunds were also being offered.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Ticketing
On 20 March 2021, it was announced that due to COVID-19-related concerns, no international guests would be allowed to attend the 2020 Olympics or Paralympics. This includes both spectators, as well as the friends and family of athletes. All overseas ticketholders will be refunded. Hashimoto cited uncertainties surrounding international travel restrictions, and goals to preserve the safety of all participants and spectators, and not place a burden on the health care system. It was ultimately announced in July that no spectators will be allowed at any events held in Tokyo, Fukushima and Hokkaido.


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Cultural festival
A cultural programme known as Nippon Festival was scheduled to coincide with the Olympics and Paralympics, running from April to September 2021 as a series of streaming events held by the Tokyo Organizing Committee and other partners. The events are reflecting the themes of "Participation and Interaction", "Towards the Realisation of an Inclusive Society" and "Reconstruction of the Tohoku Region". The programme was either downsized or reformatted to virtual format due to COVID-19 and the postponement of the Games. One of these events was a concert held on 18 July, which featured J-rock band Wanima, choreography by dancers Aio Yamada and Tuki Takamura, and the presentation of animated "creatures" based on illustrations "embodying the thoughts and emotions of people from across the world".


2020 Summer Olympics, Development and preparation, Cultural festival
The original plans for Nippon Festival included events such as Kabuki x Opera (a concert that would have featured stage actor Ichikawa Ebizō XI, opera singers Anna Pirozzi and Erwin Schrott, and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra), an arts and culture festival focusing on disabilities, and a special two-day exhibition sumo tournament at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan shortly after the Olympics—which would have differed significantly from the traditional bi-monthly Honbasho tournaments, and featured special commentary in English and Japanese to help explain to spectators the customs and traditions of professional sumo, which are deeply rooted in the Shinto religion.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Opening ceremony
The opening ceremony was held on 23 July 2021 in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. It included the traditional Parade of Nations. Emperor Naruhito formally opened the Games, and at the end of the torch relay the Olympic cauldron was lit by Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Opening ceremony
For the first time in the 2020 Olympic Games, it was decided that one male and one female in each country would take turns holding flags and serve as two of them. This was done by embodying the "Agenda 2020" set during President Bach's term.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Sports
The event programme for the 2020 Summer Olympics was approved by the IOC executive board on 9 June 2017. IOC president Thomas Bach stated that their goal was to give the Games "youthful" and "urban" appeal, and to increase the number of female participants.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Sports
The Games featured 339 events in 33 different sports, encompassing a total of 50 disciplines. Karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding made their Olympic debut, while baseball and softball also made a one-off return to the Summer Olympics for the first time since 2008. 15 new events within existing sports were also added, including 3×3 basketball, freestyle BMX, and the return of madison cycling, as well as 9 new mixed events in several sports (table tennis, archery, judo, shooting (3), triathlon, 4 × 400 m relay running and 4 × 100 m medley swimming).


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Sports
In the list below, the number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Sports, New sports
On 12 February 2013, with a remit to control the cost of the Games and ensure they are "relevant to sports fans of all generations", the IOC Executive Board recommended the removal of one of the 26 sports contested at the 2012 Summer Olympics, leaving a vacancy which the IOC would seek to fill at the 125th IOC Session. The new entrant would join golf and rugby sevens (which would both debut in 2016) as part of the programme of 28 "core" sports. Five sports were shortlisted for removal, including canoe, field hockey, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, and wrestling. In the final round of voting by the executive board, eight members voted to remove wrestling from the Olympic programme. Hockey and taekwondo were both tied in second with three votes each.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Sports, New sports
The decision to drop wrestling surprised many media outlets, given that the sport's role in the Olympics dates back to the ancient Olympic Games, and was included in the original programme for the modern Games. The New York Times felt that the decision was based on the shortage of well-known talent and the absence of women's events in the sport. Out of the shortlist from the IOC vote, Wrestling was duly added to the shortlist of applicants for inclusion in the 2020 Games, alongside the seven new sports that were put forward for consideration.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Sports, New sports
On 29 May 2013, it was announced that three of the eight sports under consideration had made the final shortlist: baseball/softball, squash and wrestling. The other five sports were rejected at this point: karate, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding, and wushu. At the 125th IOC Session on 8 September 2013, wrestling was chosen to be included in the Olympic programme for 2020 and 2024. Wrestling secured 49 votes, while baseball/softball and squash received 24 votes and 22 votes respectively.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Sports, New sports
With the adoption of the Olympic Agenda 2020 in December 2014, the IOC shifted from a "sport-based" approach to the Olympic programme to an "event-based" programme—providing additional flexibility for the host organizing committee to propose the addition of sports to the programme to improve local interest. As a result of these changes, a shortlist of eight new proposed sports was unveiled on 22 June 2015, consisting of baseball/softball, bowling, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, surfing, and wushu.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Sports, New sports
On 28 September 2015, the Tokyo Organizing Committee submitted their shortlist of five proposed sports to the IOC: baseball/softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding. These five new sports were approved on 3 August 2016 by the IOC during the 129th IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and were included in the sports programme for 2020 only, bringing the total number of sports at the 2020 Olympics to 33.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Test events
A total of 56 test events were scheduled to take place in the run-up to the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. Two of the events were held in late 2018, but the main test event schedule commenced in June 2019 and was originally due to be completed in May 2020 prior to the start of the Olympics. Several of the events were incorporated into pre-existing championships, but some have been newly created specifically to serve as Olympic test events for the 2020 Summer Games.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Test events
In February 2019, it was announced that the test events would be branded under the banner "Ready, Steady, Tokyo". The Tokyo Organizing Committee is responsible for 22 of the test events, with the remaining events being arranged by national and international sports federations. The first test event was World Sailing's World Cup Series, held at Enoshima in September 2018. The last scheduled event is the Tokyo Challenge Track Meet, which was originally due to take place at the Olympic Stadium on 6 May 2020.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Test events
All test events originally scheduled to take place from 12 March 2020 onwards were postponed due to COVID-19, with the test event calendar to be reviewed during the preparations for the rescheduled Games.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Participating National Olympic Committees
The Republic of Macedonia has competed under the provisional name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" in every Summer and Winter Games since its debut in 1996 because of the disputed status of its official name. The naming disputes with Greece ended in 2018 with the signing of the Prespa agreement, and the country was officially renamed North Macedonia in February 2019. The new name was immediately recognized by the IOC, although the Olympic Committee of North Macedonia (NMOC) was not officially adopted until February 2020. The NMOC sent a delegation to the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in January 2020, but the Tokyo Games are North Macedonia's first appearance at the Summer Olympics under its new name.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Participating National Olympic Committees
Since competing as Swaziland ten times at the Summer and Winter Olympics, Eswatini made its debut under that name after the renaming of the country by the king in 2018.


2020 Summer Olympics, The Games, Participating National Olympic Committees
On 9 December 2019, the World Anti- Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from all international sport for a period of four years, after the Russian government was found to have tampered with laboratory data that it had provided to WADA in January 2019 as a condition of the Russian Anti- Doping Agency being reinstated. As a result of the ban, WADA planned to allow individually cleared Russian athletes to take part in the 2020 Summer Olympics under a neutral banner, as instigated at the 2018 Winter Olympics, but they would be excluded from team sports.