Tokyo Olympics rescheduled for July 23-Aug. 8 of 2021

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The rescheduled Tokyo Olympics will now be held in 2021, running from July 23 through Aug. 8.

The Paralympic Games will begin on Aug. 24 of the same year and run through Sept. 5.

The International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee, and other organizers announced the changes Monday.

"With this announcement, I am confident that, working together with the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Japanese Government, and all our stakeholders, we can master this unprecedented challenge," IOC president Thomas Bach said. "Humankind currently finds itself in a dark tunnel. These Olympic Games, Tokyo 2020, can be a light at the end of this tunnel.”

On March 24 - amid the rising global COVID-19 pandemic - the IOC pulled the plug on hosting the event as initially planned this summer. At the time, the organizers imposed a mandate to reschedule the games "to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021."

The IOC noted in Monday's release three reasons for its choice of the new dates:

1. To protect the health of the athletes and everyone involved, and to support the containment of the COVID-19 virus.

2. To safeguard the interests of the athletes and of Olympic sport.

3. The global international sports calendar.

The event will still be titled Tokyo 2020 despite taking place in 2021. All athletes who've already qualified to compete will remain qualified, and all quota places already assigned will remain unchanged.