Tokyo Olympics 2020

As you all know, the 2016 Olympics in Rio are already underway so I thought that this would be a good time to write about the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

How many times has Tokyo bid for the Olympic games?

Tokyo has bid for the Games 5 times in total. 

1. Tokyo first bid for the 1940 Summer Olympics and won but unfortunately could not host the Games due to WWII. 
2. Then they bid for the 1960 Games but they lost to Rome. 
3. 1964 however, was a successful bid and became the first Asian country to host the Olympic Games. 
4. As Tokyo wished to host again, they bid for the 2016 Games but they lost to Rio. 
5. And finally, four years later, they won the bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.

But Tokyo is not the only city that has bid for the Olympics. 

• Osaka tried to host the 2008 Olympics but lost to Beijing
• Nagoya tried to host the 1988 Olympics and lost to Seoul
• Sapporo was given the 1940 Winter Olympics but as WWII broke out, they never hosted it
• Sapporo tried again in 1968 but Grenoble won
• Third time lucky, Sapporo got to host the 1972 Winter Olympics and became the first Asian country to do so.
• Soon afterwards, Sapporo tried for the 1984 and lost to Sarajevo
• In 1998, Nagano won the bid to host the Winter Olympics.

That's a lot of bids.

On September 7, Tokyo won the bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Hooray!

Construction work

For the Olympic stadium, they are demolishing the old stadium that was used for the 1964 and build the 新国立競技所 (New National Stadium). Demolition finished in October 2015 and the construction of the new stadium will start this in 2017, to be ready for the Olympics.

Most venues for the sports have been used in previous Olympics, 11 new venues will be built

The Heritage zone is an area where old venues that were used in the 1964 Games will be used again. The Tokyo Bay zone however is a place for future modern development.
5 venues will be in neither zone, most of the venues are the ones that need more space like golf and the football matches.

The events

As well as the usual events, baseball and softball will make a comeback and 4 new events will take place: surfing, karate, skateboarding and sport climbing.

The Olympic logo

As you may have heard, the original Olympic logo had to be changed as it looked too similar to the logo for the Theatre de Liege. So the new logo created by Asao Tokolo is meant to show "the refined elegance and sophistication that exemplifies Japan" according to the Tokyo Emblems Selection Committee. The three regular quadrilaterals are meant to symbolise the "different countries, cultures and the ways of thinking" and the idea of "unity in diversity" according to the organisers

The Olympic mascots

At the time of writing, the mascots for the 2020 Olympics have not been announced but will be updated when it is.

Gooooo Japan! Please leave in the comments what you are looking forward to in the current Olympics or in Olympics to come.