IOC asks international federations to finalise Olympic qualifying events dates

The International Olympic Committee has asked all international federations to finalise the dates of the Tokyo Games qualifiers and help draft contingency plans in advance for all eventualities, including potential cancellations, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, the IOC set June 29, 2021 as the new deadline for the qualification period of the Tokyo Olympics, which has been rescheduled to next year in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

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"As some event dates and locations remain to be determined due to uncertainty over IF (international federations) calendars, we thank you in advance to keep us informed once events, dates and locations start to be confirmed so that these can be included in the qualification systems as soon as possible," the IOC said in a communication dated May 15.

"With the revised qualification systems in place, the IOC Sport Operations Managers will continue to collaborate closely with you to work on potential contingency plans should the nominated Olympic qualification events not be able to take place."

The IOC is hoping that the plans would be drawn up by July.

"We would like to have these plans ready by July and then depending on the evolution of the global situation we can discuss with you if it is necessary to publish these contingency plans and officially include them in the individual qualification systems at an agreed point," the communication said.

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The IOC Sports Department and the international federations have worked in tandem to finalise the necessary adaptations of the qualification systems, with the main objective to implement a qualification system structure as close as possible to the qualification systems that were approved by the IOC Executive Board in February 2018.

The IOC also said it is working to make the Tokyo Olympics a cost effective Games.

"The Sports Department is working closely with Tokyo 2020 to identify potential areas for optimisation without impacting the athlete experience or compromising the field of play and conduct of competition."

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"The ASOIF Olympic and Multi-Sports Games Consultative Group (AOMSG) will also be engaged to aid the identification of suitable areas for optimisations and cost savings, which will then be addressed with each IF on a sportspecific basis."