DOHA (Qatar): The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) is taking a holistic approach to addressing the effects of the heat and humidity during the Tokyo 2020 Games.
The world’s most keenly-watched competition will take place in Tokyo from July 24 to August 9, 2020, with preliminary events in some sports beginning on 22 July.
To help drive measures to counteract the heat, Tokyo 2020 launched the “Tokyo 2020 COOLING Project”, a programme of initiatives aimed at ensuring the comfort and safety to all.
The number of companies participating in the project—13 at the time of the project launch—has risen to 24 as of November 1.
Heat countermeasure initiatives
During this summer, each participating company leveraged their specific expertise and undertook various heat countermeasure initiatives.
These included the installation, in cooperation with local authorities, of mist-type cooling devices and the measuring of the temperature differential between the inside and the outside of cool spots equipped with shaded areas.
They also featured the deployment of water sprinklers and the test offering of products such as frozen desserts during actual events.
A review of the results of these activities showed that, although individual initiatives brought certain benefits, their overall effectiveness was limited as a result of them being implemented in isolation.
Tokyo 2020 and the project sponsors will therefore discuss ways of coordinating their heat countermeasures in order to ensure that as many people as possible can enjoy the event comfortably even during hot weather.
Venues near completion
The preparations for the Games enter the final stretch on schedule as construction at two Tokyo 2020 venues is nearing completion eight months before the start.
The Tokyo Aquatics Centre, which will host swimming and diving, is 90 per cent, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), and is on schedule to be finished at the end of February.
The venue for volleyball and wheelchair basketball is 98 per cent finished with only the painting of the interior floor to be concluded.
