49 Fun Facts About Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Which Japanese prime minister agreed with the IOC in March 2020 to postpone the Tokyo Olympics?

Shinzo Abe told parliament a delay might be unavoidable, and on 24 March 2020 he and the IOC agreed to move the Games to 2021.

Which country's Olympic committee said in March 2020 it would keep athletes home unless Tokyo 2020 was postponed?

Canada's committee said nothing mattered more than athletes' health and safety, and within days the IOC and Japan moved the Games to 2021.

Why were spectators barred from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic venues in the capital?

A state of emergency in Tokyo, declared as Delta cases spiked, forced organisers into a U-turn on crowds, though some venues outside the capital still admitted fans.

Which US gymnast won the Tokyo 2020 all-around gold after Simone Biles pulled out of the competition?

Sunisa Lee beat Brazil's Rebeca Andrade by 0.135 points, two years after her father was paralysed in a fall from a ladder just before the 2019 US championships.

Four years before winning the 2020 Olympics, Tokyo lost the race to host the 2016 Games to which city?

Rio de Janeiro won the 2009 vote in Copenhagen after Tokyo went out in round two, and Tokyo came back to win in 2013.

Which city did Tokyo defeat in the final round of the host vote?

Madrid and Istanbul tied for second in round one, and Madrid lost the run-off.

Which Japanese city hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics, the last Games held in Japan before Tokyo 2020?

Nagano got a Shinkansen line from Tokyo in time for the Games, replacing express trains that had taken almost three hours.

Which nation topped the Tokyo 2020 medal table?

The United States won 39 golds to China's 38, only overtaking China on the final day, when its women won the volleyball final.

In which sport did host nation Japan win nine of its record 27 gold medals at Tokyo 2020?

Judo gave Japan nine golds, yet France beat the hosts 4–1 in the sport's first Olympic mixed team final.

Under what name did Russia's athletes compete at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics?

ROC stood for Russian Olympic Committee: doping sanctions barred Russia's name, flag and anthem, so a Tchaikovsky piano concerto played for its champions.

Which of these nations won its first-ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo?

Bermuda's gold came from triathlete Flora Duffy, 45th at London 2012, and made the island of about 62,000 people the smallest country to win a Summer gold.

Which weightlifter won the Philippines' first Olympic gold?

Hidilyn Diaz was stranded in Malaysia by lockdowns and trained with water bottles for weights before ending the Philippines' 97-year wait for gold.

Which swimmer won the most gold medals in Tokyo, with five?

Caeleb Dressel's five golds included the 100m freestyle, where he beat Kyle Chalmers, the Australian who had won that event at the previous Olympics.

Which Australian swimmer won seven medals, tying the record for a woman at one Games?

Emma McKeon had missed selection for Australia's London 2012 team after failing to place at the Olympic trials.

Which four sports made their Olympic debut in Tokyo?

Karate, sport climbing, surfing and skateboarding all debuted, but karate was left off the programme for Paris 2024.

Which high jumper agreed to share Tokyo 2020 gold with Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi rather than hold a jump-off?

Mutaz Essa Barshim asked an official 'Can we have two golds?', and he and Tamberi, both back from serious injuries, celebrated as joint champions.

Which sport did the IOC vote to drop in 2013, only to reinstate it for 2020 months later?

Wrestling won 49 votes to baseball-softball's 24 and squash's 22 after its new president, Nenad Lalović, rewrote the rules to make bouts more watchable.

Who lit the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony?

Naomi Osaka lit the cauldron, then lost 6–1, 6–4 to Markéta Vondroušová in the third round of the Olympic tennis tournament.

Who formally opened the Games?

Emperor Naruhito opened the Games as his grandfather Hirohito had opened Tokyo 1964, but his declaration said 'commemorating' where Hirohito's said 'celebrating'.

Which flag-bearer rule made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony?

One man and one woman per country: the IOC let teams name two flag bearers to promote gender equality, so Nauru's Jonah Harris marched beside Nancy Genzel Abouke.

To which city were the marathon and race walks moved because of heat concerns?

Sapporo got the races to escape Tokyo's heat, yet on the women's marathon morning the two cities turned out almost equally hot.

The Tokyo medals were made from metal recovered from what?

Donated electronics were collected across Japan for two years, and by March 2019 they had supplied all the metal needed for the medals.

What formed the Tokyo 2020 emblem and then a globe of the Earth above the stadium at the opening ceremony?

Drones stole the show, with critics calling the display the highlight of the whole ceremony.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic podiums were 3D-printed from what material?

Laundry detergent bottles were dropped into collection boxes across Japan, so the public helped make the podiums.

Which actor carried the Tokyo 2020 Olympic flame into Sparta on the day Greece cancelled the rest of its torch relay?

Gerard Butler, who played the Spartan king Leonidas in 300, ran the flame into Sparta, and the big crowds along the route helped push Greece to cancel its leg.

In which prefecture did the Tokyo 2020 torch relay restart in March 2021?

Fukushima was due to launch the relay on 26 March 2020, but it was suspended a day earlier, so the flame finally set off from Naraha a year later.

Which swimmer carried the flame lantern in a 2020 video after recovering from leukaemia?

Rikako Ikee, diagnosed with leukaemia in 2019, won the 100m butterfly at Japan's trials two years later to earn a place on the Tokyo medley relay.

Who resigned as head of the organising committee in February 2021 after sexist remarks?

Yoshirō Mori quit after saying women make meetings drag on by talking too much, and Olympic speed skater and cyclist Seiko Hashimoto replaced him.

Which architect's stadium design was scrapped in 2015 over cost and criticism?

Zaha Hadid's design, likened to a bicycle helmet, would have cost 252 billion yen, and the row over scrapping it led Japan's sports minister to resign.

Why was the original 2015 Tokyo 2020 emblem withdrawn?

Plagiarism allegations from Belgian artist Olivier Debie, who said it echoed his Théâtre de Liège logo, sank Kenjirō Sano's emblem, and Asao Tokolo's design replaced it.

Which kind of traditional Japanese pattern inspired the Tokyo 2020 Olympic emblem?

A checkered pattern called ichimatsu moyo shaped the indigo emblem, and the same checks were later used to dress the Games' mascot.

What was the name of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic mascot?

Miraitowa joins the Japanese words mirai ('future') and towa ('eternity'), a name chosen to promote eternal hope, and it can supposedly teleport.

Who chose the Tokyo 2020 mascots from the three shortlisted pairs?

Elementary school students picked Ryo Taniguchi's pair, but he got no royalties, having signed the rights over to the Olympic and Paralympic committees.

What was the official motto of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games?

United by Emotion became the motto of Games that, after a year's delay, went ahead with spectators barred from most events.

What did British diver Tom Daley famously do in the stands between events at Tokyo 2020?

Knitted: Daley took up knitting in lockdown and, after winning synchro gold, made a pouch to keep his medal from getting scratched.

Which American runner's Tokyo 2020 medals made her the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history?

Allyson Felix won 400m bronze and relay gold for 11 Olympic medals, less than three years after an emergency C-section.

Why were swimming finals held in the morning in Tokyo?

US primetime broadcasts drove it: morning finals let NBC, which paid $7.75 billion for US rights through 2032, show them live, as at Beijing 2008.

Which country skipped Tokyo 2020 citing COVID-19, its first Summer Games absence since 1988?

North Korea's no-show led the IOC to suspend its Olympic committee through 2022, shutting its team out of the Beijing Winter Games.

Which Belarusian sprinter refused to be sent home and fled to Poland during the Games?

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was pulled from the team after criticising her coaches on Instagram, sought police help at Haneda airport, and got a Polish humanitarian visa.

Which former long jumper won the men's 100m title at Tokyo 2020?

Marcell Jacobs had broken 10 seconds for the first time only that May, then won in 9.80 seconds, 0.04 ahead of Fred Kerley.

Which Tokyo 2020 ceremony director was dismissed the day before the opening ceremony over a 1998 Holocaust joke?

Kentarō Kobayashi was sacked over a 1990s comedy sketch days after composer Keigo Oyamada quit over school bullying, and months after Hiroshi Sasaki's exit.

The Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony's parade of athletes featured music from what kind of Japanese source?

Video game soundtracks played for the parade, though a planned segment starring Nintendo's Mario was reportedly dropped when the ceremony was scaled back.

Which material, sourced from all 47 of Japan's prefectures, was built into the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium?

Wood from every prefecture went into the stadium, though campaigners said tropical plywood from Malaysia and Indonesia had been used to mould concrete for Games venues.

Pita Taufatofua led which country into the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony shirtless, as he had at two earlier Games?

Tonga's Pita Taufatofua had switched from taekwondo to cross-country skiing to reach PyeongChang 2018, then returned to taekwondo for Tokyo.

The sunflowers in the victory bouquets were grown in which prefecture?

Miyagi's sunflowers were planted by parents whose children died in the 2011 tsunami, on a hillside where the children had sought refuge.

What went wrong for Britain's Georgia Taylor-Brown late in the Tokyo 2020 triathlon bike leg, before she took silver?

A puncture cost her about 20 seconds on the leaders, but she ran past several rivals to finish second, over a minute behind the winner.

Where was the public Olympic cauldron displayed during the Games?

Odaiba waterfront: the stadium cauldron burned only during the ceremonies, so for the rest of the Games the flame was kept by the Yume no Ohashi bridge.

Which Algerian athlete was banned for 10 years after refusing to face an Israeli opponent at Tokyo 2020?

Fethi Nourine withdrew rather than risk meeting Israel's Tohar Butbul, and he and his coach, Amar Benikhlef, were banned until July 2031.

Which pharmaceutical company announced in May 2021 it would donate vaccine doses to Olympic teams?

Pfizer and BioNTech offered doses to teams heading to Tokyo, though the IOC never made vaccination a condition for taking part.