The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has delayed all official Olympic and Paralympic test events, including those for aquatic sports, now that the Games will be moved until 2021. The IOC officially announced July 23rd, 2021 as the new start date for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Recognizing the challenges with international travel and risks of competition, the IOC says that they will unveil new dates for test events upcoming.
Test events are designed to give organizing committees the opportunity to ensure that all processes, timing, and scoring systems at a venue are working properly, and can be done at any time before the Olympic Games. As a bonus, they also give participants the opportunity to experience the competition facilities ahead of the Olympic Games if they choose – some events are open to all nations, while others are not.
“Due to the limited travel around the world and the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games, the key stakeholders of the test competitions, the international federations and OMEGA will not be able to come to Japan to carry out the necessary tests ahead of the Olympic Games.
Given the current conditions, the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee decided to postpone all test competitions starting in April. New suitable date test events will be reviewed after the approval of the new terms of the Olympic Games in 2021.”
While the open water test event and an initial water polo test event have already happened, pool swimming, para-swimming, diving, and an additional water polo test event were all due to come this April and will be postponed.
There were 3 test events scheduled in March, including Boccia, Sport Climbing, and Wheelchair Rugby. Among them, sport climbing was conducted without athletes, using staff members to test the facilities instead.
Original Aquatics Test Event Schedule
- Water Polo – Japan Swimming Championships, October 5th-7th, 2018 (COMPLETED)
- Water Polo part 2 – Water Polo Challenge Match, April 11th-12th, 2020 (POSTPONED)
- Open Water Swimming – Ready Steady Tokyo, August 11th, 2019 (COMPLETED)
- Swimming – Ready Steady Tokyo, April 14th-15th, 2020 (POSTPONED)
- Para Swimming – Ready Steady Tokyo, April 16th, 2020 (POSTPONED)
- Diving – FINA Diving World Cup, April 21st-26th, 2020 (POSTPONED)
Planning is well underway. Domo arigato!