The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international
multi-sport parasports
Parasports are sports played by people with a disability, including physical and intellectual disabilities. Some parasports are forms of adapted physical activities from existing able-bodied sports, while others have been specifically created fo ...
event held from 24 August to 5 September 2021 in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
, Japan. They were the 16th
Summer Paralympic Games as organized by the
International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Originally scheduled to take place from 25 August to 6 September 2020, both the
2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics were postponed by a year in March 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
, with the rescheduled Games still referred to as ''Tokyo 2020'' for marketing and branding purposes. As with the Olympics, the Games were largely held
behind closed doors with no outside spectators due to a state of emergency in the
Greater Tokyo Area and other prefectures. The Games were the second Summer Paralympics hosted by Tokyo since
1964, and the third Paralympics held in Japan overall since the
1998 Winter Paralympics in
Nagano. Due to the postponement of the Paralympics because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was also the first (and only) Paralympic Games to be held in an odd-numbered year and the first Summer Paralympics to be held in a
non-leap year.
The Games featured 539 medal events in 22 sports, with
badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
and
taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. ...
both making their Paralympic debut to replace
football 7-a-side
Cerebral palsy football, also called ''7-a-side football'' or formerly ''Paralympic football'', is an adaptation of association football for athletes with cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders, including stroke and traumatic brain injur ...
and
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' ( sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' ( iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...
.
China topped the medal table for the fifth consecutive Paralympics, with 96 golds and 207 total medals.
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
finished second for the ninth time, with 41 golds and 124 total medals. The
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
finished third, with 37 golds, their best finish since the
2008 games, and 104 total medals. The
Russian Paralympic Committee finished fourth, with a total of 36 golds and 118 total medals, putting them in third place when ranked by total medals.
Bids
The host of the 2020 Summer Olympics would also host the 2020 Summer Paralympics, according to a 2001 agreement between the International Paralympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee. At the 125th IOC Session, Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics via a tie-breaker in the second round of voting.
Preparations
Transport
Ahead of the
2016 Summer Paralympics closing ceremony
The closing ceremony of the 2016 Summer Paralympics was held at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 18 September 2016.
The ceremony's cultural portions were structured as a concert featuring a number of mainstream Brazilian singers ...
, Governor of Tokyo
Yuriko Koike
is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Governor of Tokyo since 2016. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1976 and was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 until 2016, when she resigned t ...
advocated for the city to improve its
accessibility as a legacy project for the Games. She cited narrow roadways with no sidewalks, buildings constructed with narrow doorways, and low ceilings, as challenges that needed to be overcome. In particular, she called for a transition to underground power lines to facilitate the widening of roads.
A number of Toyota e-Palette self-driving vehicles had been adapted to provide transport to athletes in the Paralympic Games village. On 27 August, however, the use of the vehicles was suspended after one collided with an athlete before all vehicles were re-used 3 days later.
Volunteers
In September 2018, applications to be volunteers at the Olympic and Paralympic Games were released. By January 2019 186,101 applications had been received. Interviews to whittle the numbers down began in February 2019 and training taking place in October 2019. The volunteers at the venues were known as "Field Cast" and the volunteers in the city were known as "City Cast". These names were chosen from a shortlist of four out of an original 149 pairs of names. The other shortlisted names were "Shining Blue and Shining Blue Tokyo", "Games Anchor and City Anchor" and "Games Force and City Force". The names were chosen by the people who had applied to be volunteers at the games.
Medals
The designs of the medals for the 2020 Summer Paralympics were unveiled on 25 August 2019; as with the Olympic medals, they are constructed using recycled metals that were obtained through an
electronics recycling
Electronic waste or e-waste describes discarded electrical or electronic devices. Used electronics which are destined for refurbishment, reuse, resale, salvage recycling through material recovery, or disposal are also considered e-waste. Inform ...
programme. The medals feature a design inspired by traditional folding
hand fans to symbolise the shared experience of the Paralympics; alternating
sectors containing textured areas visually and
tactually depict flowers, leaves, rocks, water and wood to symbolise the geology of Japan. The pivot where the fan meets is stated to symbolise the unity of Paralympic athletes. The obverse of the medal contains an untextured version of the fan pattern, the Paralympic emblem, and inscriptions in
braille
Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are blind, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille display ...
. To aid those with visual impairments, the edges and ribbons of the medals contain one, two, or three circular indentations and silicone convex dots for gold, silver, and bronze medals respectively so that they can be easily identified by touch.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
The 2020 Summer Olympics were largely held
behind closed doors due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, and a state of emergency in Tokyo issued by
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Yoshihide Suga, though events in some regions could be held with up to 10,000 spectators or 50% capacity (whichever is smaller) if they were not subject to a state of emergency. The declaration was originally in effect from 12 July through 22 August 2021 (two days before the Paralympic opening ceremony); on 2 August, citing worsening rates of infection, Suga announced that the existing state of emergency would be extended through 31 August, and expanded to several other prefectures (including three that neighbour Tokyo).
New daily cases in Tokyo reached over 4,000 by 11 August 2021; it was anticipated that no public spectators would be admitted during the Paralympics in Tokyo and other affected regions, as with the Olympics. Organizers discussed other options for some form of spectator presence, such as inviting local school students to attend events (a program which was also employed during the Olympics, and largely scaled back due to the pandemic). It was later confirmed that there would be no public spectators at venues in the Tokyo,
Chiba, and
Saitama prefectures. On 19 August, the state of emergency was extended through 12 September 2021, and expanded to include
Shizuoka.
On 20 August 2021, Tokyo Organizing Committee delivery officer Hidemasa Nakamura stated that the biosecurity protocols for the Paralympics had been expanded upon those from the Olympics due to the increased vulnerability to COVID-19 among its athletes, but that Tokyo was facing deteriorating hospital capacity, and that "It’s a fight against time so we need to make sure that sufficient communication is taken at a speedy manner."
Paula Tesoriero
Paula Margaret Tesoriero (born 29 August 1975 in Wellington) is a former New Zealand paralympics racing cyclist and senior public servant.
Early life
Tesoriero was born with amniotic band syndrome, which caused mobility issues. She got ...
of the New Zealand delegation stated that the Tokyo Organizing Committee and IPC had "worked tirelessly to create the safest and secure environment possible with a focus on continuing to stay vigilant".
On 4 September, after four consecutive days without any new COVID-19 cases within the Paralympic
bubble, the IPC commended the Tokyo Organizing Committee for their work in handling the pandemic, with a spokesperson stating that "the amount of work that has gone in behind the scenes to deliver what you have seen over the past three weeks has been phenomenal."
Torch relay
The details of the torch relay route were announced on 21 November 2019. There was a Heritage Flame Celebration that was held in
Stoke Mandeville. and flame lighting festivals that took place in 43 of Japan's 47
prefectures between 13 and 17 August 2020. In the second phase of the relay, another 4 rituals were performed in the 3 other prefectures that were jointly hosting the events with Tokyo between 18 to 20 August throughout the three prefectures that co-hosted Paralympic events during the run-up to the Paralympic Opening Ceremony and the last day the Tokyo Prefecture torch was lit. The flames from each of the flame lighting festivals hosted in each prefecture were brought together in Tokyo.On the night of August 21st,at the front of the
Akasaka Palace all the 48 flames were unified and the third and last phase of the relay began and lasted 4 days. This rote was the same used for the last legs of the
2020 Summer Olympics torch relay.
Aluminium was taken from temporary housing in
Fukushima
may refer to:
Japan
* Fukushima Prefecture, Japanese prefecture
**Fukushima, Fukushima, capital city of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
*** Fukushima University, national university in Japan
*** Fukushima Station (Fukushima) in Fukushima, Fukushim ...
to make the torches for the Olympic and Paralympic flames. More than 10,000 pieces of aluminium were used and organizers contacted local authorities to see which houses were no longer being used.
The Games
Sports
The 2020 Summer Paralympics featured 539 events in 22 sports.
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
and
taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. ...
made their Paralympic debut in Tokyo, while classifications were added or realigned in other sports; canoe, shooting, table tennis, track cycling, and wheelchair fencing saw increases in the number of medal events held, while there were reductions in athletics and swimming.
New sports
In January 2014, the IPC began accepting bids for new sports to be added to the Paralympic programme. Six sports were reported to have made bids, including
amputee football,
badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
,
power hockey
Power Hockey also known as Powerchair Hockey is a competitive, fast-paced hockey game based on the use of a power wheelchair. The foundation of the sport derives from ice hockey and floor hockey, but with adapted rules to enable people with disa ...
,
powerchair football, and
taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. ...
. New disciplines were also proposed in existing events, including
3x3 basketball (in wheelchair and
ID classifications), and visually impaired
match racing and one-person multi-hull in
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' ( sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' ( iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...
.
On 31 January 2015, the IPC officially announced that badminton and taekwondo had been added to the Paralympic programme for 2020. They replaced
football 7-a-side
Cerebral palsy football, also called ''7-a-side football'' or formerly ''Paralympic football'', is an adaptation of association football for athletes with cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders, including stroke and traumatic brain injur ...
and sailing. which were dropped due to an insufficient international reach.
Participating National Paralympic Committee teams
On 9 December 2019, the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from all international sport for a period of four years, after the Russian government was found to have tampered with lab data that it provided to WADA in January 2019 as a condition of the
Russian Anti-Doping Agency being reinstated. On 26 April 2021, it was confirmed Russian athletes would represent the
Russian Paralympic Committee, with the acronym 'RPC'.
At least five countries withdrew from the Games due to COVID-19-related concerns, including
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and ...
(which declined to participate in either the Olympics or Paralympics), as well as
Kiribati
Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),[Kiribati]
''The Wor ...
,
Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...
,
Tonga
Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...
, and
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
due to budgetary concerns tied to
COVID-19 travel restrictions. Absent direct flights to Japan, the four countries' athletes would have had to travel to Tokyo via
Australia and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
as international borders to those countries for non-residents had been closed since March 2020, and would be subject to 14-day quarantine periods before their flight to Japan, and on their way back to their home countries.
On 16 August 2021,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...
(representing the
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic that ruled Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan interim (2001–2002) and transitional (2002–2004) administrations, which were form ...
) withdrew from the Games due to violence and instability in the country following the
Taliban's capture of Kabul, which left their team of
Zakia Khudadadi (taekwondo) and
Hossain Rasouli
Hossain Rasouli ( ps, حسین رسولي; born 10 August 1995) is an Afghan Paralympic athlete. He would represent Afghanistan at the 2020 Summer Paralympics. He was initially denied the opportunity to compete at his maiden Paralympics due to the ...
(athletics) unable to travel to Tokyo. Their national flag was still paraded during the opening ceremony as a signal of solidarity. However, after a "major global operation", the two athletes were successfully evacuated to France, where they trained at
INSEP in Paris before arriving in a flight with the Paris 2024 delegation in Tokyo on 28 August.
IPC president
Andrew Parsons stated that the team would not be allowed to interact with other athletes at the village would they be available to the media—having been given special permission to skip press conferences. Rasouli missed the event where he was originally intended to compete, the
men's 100m T47. After declining an offer to compete in the 400m event as an alternative, Rasouli accepted an extra spot in the
men's long jump T47.
The following 162 teams qualified at least one athlete. Six of them,
Bhutan
Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountai ...
,
Grenada,
Guyana,
Maldives
The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives,, ) and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, about from the A ...
,
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
, and
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea ...
, made their debut appearances at the Paralympic Games. Two of them returned to the Games after not sending delegations in 2016:
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...
(that for the first time in its history it had not classified its athletes for the Games) along with
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...
(who had classified athletes for the last time in
Beijing 2008).
Number of athletes by National Paralympic Committee
4,403
athlete
An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance.
Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-dev ...
s from 162
NPCs:
Ranking listed by number of athletes.
Test events
There were test events before the Olympic and Paralympic Games; these were contested from June 2019 to June 2020 before the start of the 2020 Summer Olympics. The selected Paralympic sports were
athletics (2–3 May 2020),
goalball (28–29 September 2019),
paratriathlon (15–18 August 2019),
powerlifting
Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight single-lift eff ...
(26–27 September 2019),
swimming (16 April 2020) and
wheelchair rugby (12–15 March 2020). It was announced in February 2019 that test events would be under the banner "Ready, Steady, Tokyo". 22 of the 56 events would be organised by the Tokyo organising committee and the rest by national and international organisations. World Sailing's World Cup Series, held at Enoshima, was the first test event, while the last the Tokyo Challenge Track Meet in May 2020.
All test events scheduled after 12 March 2020 were postponed due to
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...
.
Medal summary
Podium sweeps
There were five
podium sweeps, as follows:
Calendar
Venues
The venues for the Paralympic games as detailed on the Tokyo 2020 official website:
Heritage Zone
*
Japan National Stadium (Olympic Stadium) –
Athletics,
Opening and
closing ceremonies
Closing may refer to:
Business and law
* Closing (law), a closing argument, a summation
* Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction
* Closing (sales), the process of making a sale
* Closing a business, the proc ...
*
Nippon Budokan –
Judo
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...
*
Tokyo Equestrian Park –
Equestrian
*
Tokyo International Forum –
Powerlifting
Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight single-lift eff ...
*
Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium
is a sporting complex in Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Built in 1954 for the World Wrestling Championship, it was also used as the venue for gymnastics at the 1964 Summer Olympics, and hosted the table tennis competition at the 2020 S ...
–
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...
*
Yoyogi National Stadium –
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...
,
Wheelchair rugby
*
Musashino Forest Sport Plaza –
Wheelchair basketball
Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (o ...
(secondary venue)
Tokyo Bay Zone
*
Aomi Urban Sports Venue –
Football 5-a-side
*
Ariake Arena –
Wheelchair basketball
Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (o ...
(main venue)
*
Ariake Tennis Park –
Wheelchair tennis
*
Dream Island Archery Park –
Archery
*
Makuhari Messe –
Goalball,
Sitting volleyball,
Taekwondo
''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. ...
,
Wheelchair fencing
Wheelchair fencing is a version of fencing for athletes with a disability. Wheelchair fencing is governed by the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation that is a federation of the International Paralympic Committee, and is one of ...
*
Odaiba Marine Park –
Paratriathlon
*
Tokyo Aquatics Centre –
Swimming
*
Ariake Gymnastics Centre –
Boccia
*
Sea Forest Waterway –
Rowing,
Paracanoe
Venues outside 10 km area
*
Asaka Shooting Range –
Shooting
*
Izu Velodrome
The Izu Velodrome is a velodrome in Shizuoka, Japan. It has a 250-metre cycling track and spectator facilities for 3,600 people. It was opened in 2011, and was selected as the venue to host the track cycling events at the 2020 Summer Olympic ...
–
Track cycling
Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles.
History
Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it ...
*
Fuji Speedway –
Road cycling
Non-competition venues
*
Harumi Futo – Paralympic Village
*
Tokyo Big Sight Conference Tower – International Media and Broadcast Centre
Marketing
Logo
The emblems of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled on 25 April 2016. The Paralympic emblem features a
hand fan in a circle form, filled with an indigo-colored checkerboard pattern. The design is meant to "express a refined elegance and sophistication that exemplifies Japan".
The designs replaced a previous emblem which had been scrapped due to allegations that it
plagiarized the logo of the
Théâtre de Liège in Belgium.
Mascot
The shortlist of mascots for the Tokyo Games was unveiled on 7 December 2017 and the winning entry was announced on 28 February 2018. Candidate pair A, created by Ryo Taniguchi, received the most votes (109,041) and was declared the winner, defeating Kana Yano's pair B (61,423 votes) and Sanae Akimoto's pair C (35,291 votes). Someity is a figure with pink chequered patterns inspired by the Games' official logo, as well as cherry blossom flowers. It has a calm but powerful ability, it is nature-loving, and it speaks to the wind. Both Miraitowa and Someity were named by the
Organising Committee on 22 July 2018.
Animated shorts
Japanese public broadcaster
NHK produced a series of short films called ''Animation x Paralympic: Who Is Your Hero?'' Each short features a different Paralympic sport, and is designed and produced in collaboration with well-known creators of
anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
and
manga
Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...
, sometimes featuring crossovers with popular series or with real-life athletes.
Broadcasting
The International Paralympic Committee anticipated that the 2020 Summer Paralympics would be seen by a global audience of at least 4.25 billion viewers, an increase over the estimated 4.1 billion of the 2016 Games. Japanese broadcaster NHK aired coverage of selected events in
8K. In markets without and with a dedicated rightsholder, the IPC streamed the Games on its
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...
,
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin ...
accounts.
In the United Kingdom, these were third Summer Paralympics to be broadcast by
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
, which planned to air at least 300 hours of coverage on free-to-air TV (with
More4 to be dedicated primarily to team events), 1,200 hours of coverage via streaming, as well as an evening highlights program and ''
The Last Leg'' nightly. The broadcaster launched a trailer directed by
Bradford Young entitled "Super. Human." in mid-July 2021, which aimed to focus on the "realities" of the lives of Paralympic athletes, and "the sacrifices they make in pursuit of greatness".
In the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...
,
NBCUniversal aired 1,200 hours of coverage on
NBCSN and
Olympic Channel, while
NBC broadcast five highlights programs over the course of the Games and afterward (with three airing in
primetime), which "
howcasedthe incredible backstories of the athletes and teams competing in Tokyo".
Canadian media rights was once again led by the
CBC, with 120 hours of television coverage, along with broadcasts by
Sportsnet and
AMI-tv.
In
Australia, the
Seven Network offered one free-to-air channel broadcast via either their
Channel 7 Channel 7 or TV7 may refer to:
Television networks, channels and stations
;Algeria
*TV7 (Algerian TV channel)
; Argentina
*Channel 7 (Argentina), a government-owned Argentine TV station
* Channel 7 – Bahía Blanca, an Argentine TV station in Bue ...
or
7mate
7mate is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010. The channel contains sport and regular programs aimed primarily to a male audience, with programming drawn from a ...
channels and up to 16 free streaming channels via the online
7plus service.
In New Zealand, the Games were broadcast by
TVNZ Duke
TVNZ Duke ( mi, Te Reo Tātaki Tiuka), formerly Duke and stylized as TVNZ DUKE or DUKE, is a New Zealand television channel run by state broadcaster Television New Zealand. It screens programming targeted at a male audience. It was launched on 20 ...
.
TVNZ faced criticism for the scale of its coverage, including a lack of streaming coverage, and the TVNZ broadcast and
OBS world feed missing coverage of events involving local athletes. On 2 September, citing the criticism, TVNZ announced that it would waive the
geoblocking for the IPC's official streams on YouTube.
In India,
Eurosport India
Eurosport India (formerly known as DSport) is an Indian sports channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Asia-Pacific. It was launched as ''DSport'' in February 2017 with a partnership between Discovery India and Lex Sportel. In January 2020, Lex ...
and
Discovery+ debuted as a new local rightsholder, focusing on coverage of events involving Indian athletes.
For the first time in Chile, the Paralympics were broadcast on
TVN.
In Brazil, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games were broadcast on
Grupo Globo platforms
Sportv,
Globoplay and for the first time some events was broadcast live on
Rede Globo free-to-air channel at late nights and early mornings. The games were sublicensed to a public broadcasters consortium led by
TV Brasil and
TV Cultura.
In Malaysia, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games were broadcast on
Astro Arena HD channel 801.
In Singapore, selected live events were telecast on
Mediacorp Channel 5 while the rest of the coverage was streamed on
meWATCH
meWATCH is a Singaporean digital video on demand service brand owned by Mediacorp. It was launched on 1 February 2013 as an over-the-top media service and an entertainment and lifestyle website Toggle.
On 1 April 2015, xinmsn, an internet po ...
. Selected highlights also appeared on the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube channel.
In the Philippines, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games were broadcast on cable channel
TAP Sports and was streamed online on
TAP Go.
Concerns and controversies
Student attendees and COVID-19
Tokyo governor
Yuriko Koike
is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Governor of Tokyo since 2016. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1976 and was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 until 2016, when she resigned t ...
pressed ahead for students to be allowed to attend the Paralympics with the Paralympic organizing committee in Tokyo arguing "it's important to have students view athletes with disabilities" for their education on disability. This has been remarked on due to their being a state of emergency in Tokyo concerning the illness.
Chiba Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the n ...
later dropped from the program due to two teachers being found to have COVID-19 infections.
Assault by a member of the Georgian team
The reining judo paralympic champion from Georgia,
Zviad Gogotchuri
Zviad Gogotchuri ( ka, ზვიად გოგოჭური, born 30 October 1986) is a visually impaired Georgian Paralympic judoka. He won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in the 90 kg category. This marked his and Georgia's ina ...
, was arrested after assaulting a security guard at a Tokyo hotel on 16 August 2021. The visually impaired
judo
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...
ka from
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to t ...
was later ejected from the games.
Men's judo 81 kg
Japan's
Aramitsu Kitazono was scheduled to compete in the round of 16 events of the
men's 81 kg category. However, he was forced to withdraw at the last minute, two days before his scheduled event after sustaining injuries to his head and legs during an incident that happened on 26 August 2021 at the
Paralympics Village. It was revealed Aramitsu was hit by a
Toyota e-Palette driverless vehicle, which was under manual control by an operator, when he was walking on the
pedestrian crossing. His opponent
Dmytro Solovey of Ukraine automatically qualified to the quarterfinals as a result of Aramitsu's late withdrawal.
Men's shot put (F20) final
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
n
shot put
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...
ter (
F20 class),
Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli, arrived three minutes late for the event but was cleared to compete.
In this event on 31 August 2021, he originally won the gold medal in the
men's shot put F20 event, thus defending his title in Rio 2016 and breaking a new world record. However after the event had finished, his gold was stripped after a protest from the Ukrainian delegation, citing that Ziyad came late to the call room. Other than Ziyad, Australian
Todd Hodgets and Ecuadorian Jordi Villalba were also disqualified from the event for 'Failure to Report to the Call Room'.
Later, Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister,
Ahmad Faizal Azumu
Ahmad Faizal bin Azumu ( Jawi: أحمد فيصل بن ازومو; born 10 June 1970), nicknamed Peja, is a Malaysian politician who served as the Minister of Youth and Sports in the Barisan Nasional (BN) administration under former Prime Minis ...
issued a statement via his Twitter account, stating that the National Paralympic Committees of Malaysia, Australia, and Ecuador has made a joint-counter protest to opposing the protest made by the Ukrainian delegation.
However, the appeal from three NPC's has been rejected, and Ukrainian
Maksym Koval remains as the gold medal winner.
After the events, some social media accounts from Ukraine have been spammed by hateful comments from Malaysia, including Ukrainian president
Volodymyr Zelensky's Instagram account. Koval's Instagram account has also been hacked by Malaysian cyber troopers due to the result. This action caused the official Facebook account of the Ukrainian Embassy to Malaysia to be deactivated, and the Embassy's official Twitter account has been set to private.
Other incidents
Forty officers from , who were tasked to support local police at venues and to control traffic during the Games, were removed from duty by
Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) and sent home following numerous incidents. This included visiting brothels, drinking in their dormitories (which is against regulations) and in bars surrounding
Kinshichō Station,
Sumida, which then descended into drunken brawls with civilian bystanders. That latter incident led the TMPD to intervene, which led to the officers being caught.
See also
*
2020 Summer Olympics
*
#WeThe15
*
Upper-class citizen
The is a Japanese buzzword used mainly on the Internet to refer to privileged people who are apart from commoners. In 2015 and 2019, the term was nominated for the Internet Buzzword Award, New Words and Buzzwords of the Year Awards, sponsored by t ...
Notes
References
External links
Tokyo 2020 on the International Paralympic Committee websiteTokyo 2020 Official Homepage
{{NPCsin2020SummerParalympics
Paralympics
Summer Paralympics
The Summer Paralympics also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, are an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebra ...
2021 in disability sport
2021 in Tokyo
Paralympics
Summer Paralympics 2020
Multi-sport events in Japan
Summer Paralympic Games
Sports competitions in Tokyo
Paralympics
Paralympics