New on Sports Illustrated: Tokyo Olympic Organizers Announce New Dates for 2021 Summer Games

The International Olympic Committee announced the Tokyo Olympics will start on July 23, 2021.

The International Olympic Committee and Japanese organizers

announced the new dates for the Tokyo Olympics, which will now run from July 23 to Aug. 8, 2021.

The Olympics were initially slated to be held from July 24 to Aug. 9, 2020. Last week. Japanese prime minister and IOC president Thomas Bach agreed to postpone the Olympics due to the coronavirus pandemic and announced the Games would take place "no later than summer 2021."

The finalized dates will lead to some reshuffling in qualifying tournaments and trials to fit within the calendar year. Athletes will now be able to schedule and plan their training and competition schedules accordingly. There were some rumors about possibly moving the Olympics to the spring for more favorable weather but the IOC decided that the same heat mitigation measures for 2020 would be implemented a year later.

The IOC also noted that all athletes who have already qualified and earned spots for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo would remain qualified.

FINA (swimming's global governing body) and World Athletics (track and field's global governing body) have said that they are willing to reschedule their 2021 world championships for the Olympics.

"We support the new 2021 dates for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games announced today by the Japanese organizers and the IOC," World Athletics said in a statement following the IOC announcement. "This gives our athletes the time they need to get back into training and competition. Everyone needs to be flexible and compromise and to that end we are now working with the organizers of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon on new dates in 2022 for our World Athletics Championships. We are also in discussions with the Commonwealth Games Federation and the European Championships. We would like to thank our Oregon 21 Organising Committee, their stakeholders and our partners for their collaboration and willingness to explore all options."

The Paralympics will be held from Aug. 25 to Sep. 5.