The 2021 Olympics will still be called "Tokyo 2020"

After the official announcement by the International Olympic Committee of the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to the summer of 2021 due to the Coronavirus, a series of chain reactions have taken place that have involved even the most ''practical'' aspects: if the Olympic flame, which arrived in Fukushima from Greece last week, can safely remain in Japan for more than a year, the biggest problem concerns the naming of the event.

In fact, the Games will continue to be called "Tokyo 2020 Olympics", a solution forced by the fact that the organizers were not given enough time to modify all the communication of the event, produced from 2013 to today: we are talking about 7 long years of investment, promotion and merchandising that clearly cannot be changed in such a short space of time.

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Joint Statement from the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, and the Prime Minister of Japan, Abe Shinzo, held a conference call this morning to discuss the constantly changing environment with regard to COVID-19 and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. President Bach and Prime Minister Abe expressed their shared concern about the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, and what it is doing to people’s lives and the significant impact it is having on global athletes’ preparations for the Games. In a very friendly and constructive meeting, the two leaders praised the work of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and noted the great progress being made in Japan to fight against COVID-19. The unprecedented and unpredictable spread of the outbreak has seen the situation in the rest of the world deteriorating. Yesterday, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the COVID-19 pandemic is "accelerating". There are more than 375,000 cases now recorded worldwide and in nearly every country, and their number is growing by the hour. In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community. The leaders agreed that the Olympic Games in Tokyo 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. Therefore, it was agreed that the Olympic flame will stay in Japan. It was also agreed that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

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However, this is not the first time that the organizers of Tokyo 2020 have been asked for a ''restyling'': already in 2016 the IOC had forced the change of logo, after the first one that had been proposed had been accused of plagiarism for an evident resemblance to that of the Liège Theater.

As for the more technical aspects, the new dates have not yet been announced but surely it will not be possible to go beyond the summer of 2021, bringing consequences only in the sports field with international competitions which will in turn undergo a variation of given while the qualifications already carried out for Tokyo 2020 will simply be frozen for a year.