The Tokyo Olympic Games will hold from 23 July 2021 to 8 August after being postponed for a year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The new date was announced by the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board following a meeting on Monday.
The Olympics will still be called Tokyo 2020 despite taking place in 2021.
The Paralympic Games, originally due to start on 25 August, 2020, will now take place between 24 August and 5 September, 2021.
IOC president Thomas Bach said: “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.
“Humankind currently finds itself in a dark tunnel. These Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 can be a light at the end of this tunnel.”
International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons added: “When the Paralympic Games do take place in Tokyo next year, they will be an extra-special display of humanity uniting as one, a global celebration of human resilience and a sensational showcase of sport.
“With the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games 512 days away, the priority for all those involved in the Paralympic movement must be to focus on staying safe with their friends and family during this unprecedented and difficult time.”
The unprecedented decision to postpone both events came after the IOC and Japanese government succumbed to intense pressure from athletes and sporting bodies around the world last Tuesday to protect the health of the athletes and everyone involved, and to support the containment of the Covid-19 virus.
The postponement represents a huge blow for Japan, which invested $13 billion in the run-up to the event, and raised $3 billion from domestic sponsors.
But Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee said it was too early to say what the additional costs of the delay would be.
Mori said he had proposed the 23 July to 8 August time frame to the IOC, and that Bach had agreed, following consultations with the international sports federations.
The new dates also took into consideration the rest of the global sports calendar after the men’s football European Championship was postponed to the summer of 2021.
The World Athletics Championships, originally set to take place in Oregon, USA, between 6 August and 15 August 2021, will now be postponed until 2022.
If that is moved back exactly a year it would clash with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham which is set to take place between 27 July and 7 August.
Organisers hope the delay will allow sufficient time to finish the qualification process which will follow the same mitigation measures planned for 2020.
It has previously been confirmed that all athletes already qualified and quota places already assigned will remain unchanged.
Purchased tickets would be valid for rescheduled events or a refund could be requested when the new dates were set, organisers previously confirmed.
It is the first time in the Olympic Games’ 124-year modern history that they have been delayed, though they were cancelled altogether in 1916 because of World War One and again in 1940 and 1944 for World War Two. Cold War boycotts affected the summer Games in Moscow and Los Angeles in 1980 and 1984 respectively.
