«The schedule for the Games is key to preparing for the Games,» Tokyo organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori said. «This will only accelerate our progress.»

Last week, the International Olympic Committee and Japanese organizers postponed the Olympics until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This year’s Games were scheduled to open on July 24 and close on Aug. 9. But the nearly exact one-year delay will see the rescheduled closing ceremony on Aug. 8.

There had been talk of switching the Olympics to spring, a move that would coincide with the blooming of Japan’s famous cherry blossoms. But it would also clash with European soccer and North American sports leagues.

Mori said a spring Olympics was considered, but holding the Games later gives more space to complete the many qualifying events that have been postponed by the virus outbreak.

«We wanted to have more room for the athletes to qualify,» Mori said.

After holding out for weeks, local organizers and the IOC last week postponed the Tokyo Games under pressure from athletes, national Olympic bodies and sports federations. It’s the first postponement in Olympic history, though there were several cancellations during wartime.

The Paralympics have been rescheduled to Aug. 24-Sept. 5.

The new Olympic dates would conflict with the scheduled world championships in track and swimming, but those events are now also expected to be pushed back.

The governing body of track and field says it supports the new dates for the Tokyo Olympics and is working with organizers in Eugene, Ore., to move its world championships to 2022. The 2021 track worlds were scheduled to be next year from Aug. 6-15 and the swimming world championships were scheduled for July 16-Aug. 1

World Athletics says it will consult with the organizers of the Commonwealth Games and the European Athletics Championships. Those are other major track events scheduled to take place in 2022.

«The IOC has had close discussions with the relevant international federations,» Mori said. «I believe the IFs have accepted the Games being held in the summer.»

Cost of rescheduling ‘massive’

Both Mori and CEO Toshiro Muto have said the cost of rescheduling will be «massive» — local reports estimate billions of dollars — with most of the expenses borne by Japanese taxpayers.

Muto promised transparency in calculating the costs.

«Since [the Olympics] were scheduled for this summer, all the venues had given up hosting any other events during this time, so how do we approach that?» Muto asked. «In addition, there will need to be guarantees when we book the new dates, and there is a possibility this will incur rent payments. So there will be costs incurred and we will need to consider them one by one. I think that will be the tougher process.»

Katsuhiro Miyamoto, an emeritus professor of sports economics at Kansai University, puts the costs as high as $4 billion US. That would cover the price of maintaining and refitting stadiums, as well as paying rentals, penalties and other expenses.

Japan is officially spending $12.6 billion to organize the Olympics. However, an audit bureau of the Japanese government says the costs are twice that much. All of the spending is public money except $5.6 billion from a privately funded operating budget.

The Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee is contributing $1.3 billion, according to organizing committee documents. The IOC’s contribution goes into the operating budget.

IOC president Thomas Bach has repeatedly called the Tokyo Olympics the best prepared in history. However, Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso also dubbed them «cursed.» Aso competed in shooting in the 1976 Olympics, and was born in 1940.

The Olympics planned for 1940 in Tokyo were cancelled because of the Second World War.

The run-up to the Olympics also saw IOC member Tsunekazu Takeda, who also headed the Japanese Olympic Committee, forced to resign last year amid a bribery scandal.