The , branded as the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, was an international

multi-sport A multi-sport event is an organized sporting event, often held over multiple days, featuring competition in many different sports among organized teams of athletes from (mostly) nation-states. The first major, modern, multi-sport event of interna ...

parasports 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 The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

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 identi ...

, 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 The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tochigi) as well as the ...

and other prefectures. The Games were the second Summer Paralympics hosted by Tokyo since

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

, and the third Paralympics held in Japan overall since the

1998 Winter Paralympics The , the seventh Paralympic Winter Games, were held alongside the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan from 5 to 14 March 1998. They were the first Paralympic Winter Games to be held outside Europe. 571 athletes competed in Nagano; as 2022 it remai ...

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

. 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 racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

and

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

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 chosen cou ...

. 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 i ...

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 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

finished third, with 37 golds, their best finish since the 2008 games, and 104 total medals. The

Russian Paralympic Committee The Russian Paralympic Committee (russian: Паралимпийский комитет России) is the National Paralympic Committee representing Russia. History The Russian Paralympic Committee was founded in 1996. On 7 August 2016, i ...

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, 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 to ...

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 Sector may refer to: Places * Sector, West Virginia, U.S. Geometry * Circular sector, the portion of a disc enclosed by two radii and a circular arc * Hyperbolic sector, a region enclosed by two radii and a hyperbolic arc * Spherical sector, a p ...

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 disp ...

. 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 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 COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, 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 i ...

Yoshihide Suga is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2020 to 2021. He had served as Chief Cabinet Secretary during the second administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fro ...

, 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 Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

. 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 her ...

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 Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to: Common uses * Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid ** Soap bubble * Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying funda ...

, 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 A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

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 , or the , is one of the two state guest houses of the Government of Japan. The other state guesthouse is the Kyoto State Guest House. The palace was originally built as the in 1909. Today the palace is designated by the Government of Japan a ...

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 racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

and

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 Amputee football is a disabled sport played with seven players on each team (six outfield players and one goalkeeper). Outfield players have lower extremity amputations, and goalkeepers have an upper extremity amputation. Outfield players use lof ...

, power hockey, powerchair football, and

. New disciplines were also proposed in existing events, including

3x3 basketball 3x3 basketball (pronounced ''three-ex-three'') is a variation of basketball played three-a-side, with one backboard and in a half-court setup. According to an ESSEC Business School study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, 3x3 ...

(in wheelchair and ID classifications), and visually impaired

match racing A match race is a race between two competitors, going head-to-head. In sailboat racing it is differentiated from a fleet race, which almost always involves three or more competitors competing against each other, and team racing where teams consi ...

and one-person multi-hull in

. On 31 January 2015, the IPC officially announced that badminton and taekwondo had been added to the Paralympic programme for 2020. They replaced

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 The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key ...

(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 The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA; russian: Российское антидопинговое агентство, РУСАДА), established in January 2008, is the Russian National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO), affiliated with (but suspen ...

being reinstated. On 26 April 2021, it was confirmed Russian athletes would represent the

, 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 T ...

(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 and Apolima); ...

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 During the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries and regions imposed quarantines, entry bans, or other travel restrictions for citizens of or recent travelers to the most affected areas. Some countries and regions imposed global restrictions th ...

. 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 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

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 bordere ...

(representing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan) 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 Zakia Khudadadi also spelt as Zakia Khodadadi ( ps, ذکیه خدادادی; born 29 September 1998) is an Afghan parataekwondo practitioner. She is the first Afghan female taekwondo practitioner. She rose to prominence after winning the African ...

(taekwondo) and Hossain Rasouli (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 INSEP, the National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (Institut national du sport, de l'expertise et de la performance), is a French training institute and center for excellence in sports that trains elite athletes. It is located on th ...

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 mountainou ...

, Grenada, Guyana,

Maldives Maldives (, ; dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, translit=Dhivehi Raajje, ), officially the Republic of Maldives ( dv, ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, translit=Dhivehi Raajjeyge Jumhooriyyaa, label=none, ), is an archipelag ...

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 w ...

, 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 lan ...

(who had classified athletes for the last time in

Beijing 2008 The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

Number of athletes by National Paralympic Committee

4,403 athletes from 162

NPCs A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster ...

: 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 Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

(2–3 May 2020),

goalball Goalball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a vision impairment. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded inside of it into the opponents' goal. The ball is thrown by hand a ...

(28–29 September 2019),

paratriathlon Para triathlon is a variant of the triathlon for athletes with a physical disability. The sport is governed by World Triathlon (TRI) (formerly known as ITU), and was first held as a Paralympic event at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, ...

(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 effo ...

(26–27 September 2019),

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

(16 April 2020) and

wheelchair rugby Wheelchair rugby (originally murderball, and known as quad rugby in the United States) is a team sport for athletes with a disability. It is practised in over twenty-five countries around the world and is a summer Paralympic sport. The US na ...

(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 quickly ...

Medal summary

Podium sweeps

There were five

podium sweep A podium sweep is where a team or nation comes in first, second and third, such as at the Olympics, and wins all available medals, which are recognized by a podium ceremony. The word Whitewash (sport), sweep is commonly used in North American sport ...

s, as follows:

Calendar

Venues

The venues for the Paralympic games as detailed on the Tokyo 2020 official website: Rainbow Bridge,Tokyo Bay from Odaiba

Heritage Zone

* Japan National Stadium (Olympic Stadium) –

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

Opening Opening may refer to: * Al-Fatiha, "The Opening", the first chapter of the Qur'an * The Opening (album), live album by Mal Waldron * Backgammon opening * Chess opening * A title sequence or opening credits * , a term from contract bridge * , ...

and closing ceremonies * 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 The is an Equestrianism, equestrian sport venue located in Setagaya, Tokyo. The venue is owned by the Japan Racing Association and is a public park all year round, known familiarly as 'Horse Park'. It was constructed in 1940 for the Olympics, bu ...

–

Equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

Tokyo International Forum The is a multi-purpose exhibition center in Tokyo, Japan. The complex is generally considered to be in the Yūrakuchō business district, being adjacent to Yūrakuchō Station, but it is administratively in the Marunouchi district. Tokyo Int ...

–

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 effo ...

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 Summ ...

–

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 Yoyogi National Gymnasium, officially is an indoor arena located at Yoyogi Park in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, which is famous for its suspension roof design. It was designed by Kenzo Tange and built between 1961 and 1964 to house swimming and ...

–

Wheelchair rugby Wheelchair rugby (originally murderball, and known as quad rugby in the United States) is a team sport for athletes with a disability. It is practised in over twenty-five countries around the world and is a summer Paralympic sport. The US na ...

Musashino Forest Sport Plaza The Musashino Forest Sport Plaza is a multi-sport venue located in Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. The main arena has a seating capacity of over 10,000, and also includes a swimming pool, a gym, a multi-use sports area and two fitness studios, that is ...

–

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 (of ...

(secondary venue)

Tokyo Bay Zone

* Aomi Urban Sports Venue –

Football 5-a-side Paralympic football consists of adaptations of the sport of association football for athletes with a physical disability. These sports are typically played using International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) rules, with modifications to ...

Ariake Arena The Ariake Arena is a multi-sport venue located in Ariake, Tokyo, Ariake, Tokyo, Japan. It served as the Volleyball at the 2020 Summer Olympics, volleyball venue for the 2020 Summer Olympics and the Wheelchair basketball at the 2020 Summer Paraly ...

–

(main venue) * Ariake Tennis Park –

Wheelchair tennis Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis adapted for wheelchair users. The size of the court, net height and rackets are the same, but there are two major differences from pedestrian tennis: athletes use specially designed wheelchairs, ...

* Dream Island Archery Park – Archery *

Makuhari Messe is a Japanese convention center outside Tokyo, located in the Mihama-ku ward of Chiba City, in the northwest corner of Chiba Prefecture. Designed by Fumihiko Maki, it is accessible by Tokyo's commuter rail system. ''Makuhari'' is the name of ...

–

Goalball Goalball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a vision impairment. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded inside of it into the opponents' goal. The ball is thrown by hand a ...

, Sitting volleyball,

Taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

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 o ...

* Odaiba Marine Park –

Paratriathlon Para triathlon is a variant of the triathlon for athletes with a physical disability. The sport is governed by World Triathlon (TRI) (formerly known as ITU), and was first held as a Paralympic event at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, ...

Tokyo Aquatics Centre The is an indoor swimming pool in the Mori- Beach Park () in Tatsumi in the Kōtō ward in eastern Tokyo. Construction began in April 2017 and was completed in 2020. The total construction cost was 56.7 billion yen, ¥ (471 million Euro, €). ...

–

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Ariake Gymnastics Centre The Ariake Gymnastics Centre is a temporary sports arena located in the Ariake, Tokyo, Ariake district of Tokyo, Japan. Opened in October 2019, the venue was constructed to host the Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, gymnastics events at the ...

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Boccia Boccia ( ) is a precision ball sport, similar to bocce, and related to bowls and pétanque. The name "boccia" is derived from the Latin word for "boss" – '. The sport is contested at local, national and international levels, by athletes ...

Sea Forest Waterway The is a regatta venue for rowing and canoeing, situated in Kōtō and Ōta, Tokyo Bay, in Japan. History The venue was built for the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games. Construction began in 2016 and it was inaugurated in June 2019. ...

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Rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...

Paracanoe Paracanoe is canoeing for athletes with a range of physical disabilities. The Paralympic version of the sport is governed by the International Canoe Federation (ICF), and a va'a-specific variant is governed by the International Va'a Federation (IVF ...

Venues outside 10 km area

Asaka Shooting Range Camp Asaka is a base of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. It lies in four municipalities: Nerima, Tokyo; Asaka, Saitama; Wako, Saitama; and Niiza, Saitama. It serves as the headquarters of the Eastern Army. The camp was originally the site ...

–

Shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles ...

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 Olympics i ...

–

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 Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes recreational, racing, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, road cyclists are generally expected to obey the same laws as ...

Non-competition venues

Harumi Futo Harumi Futō is located in Harumi, Tokyo, Harumi (晴海), an island district of Chūō, Tokyo (central Tokyo). 'Harumi' may mean sunny, spring or beauty, while 'futō' (埠頭) refers to coastline or pier. The harbour pier supports Harumi Term ...

– Paralympic Village *

Tokyo Big Sight , officially known as , is a convention and exhibition center in Tokyo, Japan, and the largest one in the country. Opened in April 1996, the center is located in the Ariake Minami district of on the Tokyo Bay waterfront. Its most iconic feature ...

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 A handheld fan, or simply hand fan, is any broad, flat surface that is waved back-and-forth to create an airflow. Generally, purpose-made handheld fans are folding fans, which are shaped like a sector of a circle and made of a thin material (su ...

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 Théâtre de Liège is a theatre in Liège, Belgium. The theatre briefly became the subject of notoriety in July 2015 after it was found that its logo, designed by local designer Olivier Debie, had been plagiarized by the designer of the emblem ...

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 , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

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, 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 mo ...

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 Mosk ...

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 Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, which planned to air at least 300 hours of coverage on free-to-air TV (with

More4 More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas. Content When ...

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 ''The Last Leg'' (known during its first series as ''The Last Leg with Adam Hills'' and in Australia as ''Adam Hills: The Last Leg'') is a British comedy and late-night television talk/sketch show that originally ran alongside the 2012 Summer Pa ...

'' 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

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primaril ...

aired 1,200 hours of coverage on NBCSN and

Olympic Channel Olympic Channel is an over-the-top Internet television service operated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It was launched on August 21, 2016, alongside the closing of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The service aims to maintain year-round ...

, while

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

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 AMI-tv is a Canadian, English-language, digital cable specialty channel owned by the non-profit organization Accessible Media. AMI-tv broadcasts a selection of general entertainment programming with accommodations for those who are visually or h ...

. In Australia, the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...

offered one free-to-air channel broadcast via either their Channel 7 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 c ...

channels and up to 16 free streaming channels via the online

7plus 7plus (stylised as 7+) is a video on demand, catch-up TV service run by the Seven Network. The service became available on 27 November 2017. 7plus also offers online live streaming of Channel 7, 7two, 7mate, 7flix, Racing.com and 7Sport. 7p ...

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 Geo-blocking or geoblocking is technology that restricts access to Internet content based upon the user's geographical location. In a geo-blocking scheme, the user's location is determined using Internet geolocation techniques, such as checking t ...

for the IPC's official streams on YouTube. In India, Eurosport India and

Discovery+ Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discover ...

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 TVN may refer to: * TVN (Australian TV channel), a former horse racing channel * Televisión Nacional de Chile, a public broadcaster * TVN (Indonesia), a former television station; predecessor of Rajawali Televisi * TVN (Norway), or TVNorge, a comm ...

. In Brazil, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games were broadcast on

Grupo Globo Grupo Globo ( en, Globo Group), formerly known as Organizações Globo ( en, Globo Organization), is a Brazilian private mass media conglomerate based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Founded in 1925 by Irineu Marinho, it is the largest media group i ...

platforms

Sportv SporTV is a Brazilian pay television sports network owned by Canais Globo, part of Grupo Globo, launched in 1991. It is the most watched sports network in Brazil. On January 18, 2013, were launched High-definition simulcasts of SporTV and ...

Globoplay Globoplay is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Grupo Globo. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced by Estúdios Globo with the service also hosting content from other provider ...

and for the first time some events was broadcast live on

Rede Globo TV Globo (, "Globe TV", or simply Globo), formerly known as Rede Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Grupo Globo. The TV stati ...

free-to-air channel at late nights and early mornings. The games were sublicensed to a public broadcasters consortium led by

TV Brasil TV Brasil is a Brazilian public television network owned by Empresa Brasil de Comunicação. Its main headquarters are in Brasília, DF and Rio de Janeiro, RJ, with owned-and-operated stations in São Paulo, SP and in São Luís, MA, as we ...

and

TV Cultura TV Cultura or simply Cultura, is a free Brazilian public television network headquartered in São Paulo and a part of Father Anchieta Foundation, a non-profit foundation funded by the São Paulo State Government. It focuses on educational and ...

. 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 Channel 5 (Chinese: 五頻道) is a free-to-air, English-language television channel in Singapore. Owned by state broadcaster Mediacorp, it broadcasts general entertainment, news, and sports programming. The channel's logo is a big white number ...

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 port ...

. 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 TAP Sports (stylized as tap Sports) is a Philippine pay television network of sports channels owned by TAP Digital Media Ventures Corporation. It was launched on April 14, 2019, under two separate channels carried by Sky Cable, and was later rel ...

and was streamed online on TAP Go.

Concerns and controversies

Student attendees and COVID-19

Tokyo governor

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 t ...

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 The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paral ...

, 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 the ...

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 is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

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 putter ( F20 class),

Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli Muhammad Ziyad bin Zolkefli (born 15 March 1990) is a Paralympic athlete from Malaysia who competes in T20 classification shot put events. He is the current world record holder in his event. Zolkefli represented Malaysia at the 2012 Summer Pa ...

, 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 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 Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...

'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 The serves as the prefectural police department of Tokyo Metropolis. Founded in 1874, it is headed by a Superintendent-General, who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission, and approved by the Prime Minister. The Tokyo Met ...

(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 is a railway station in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and Tokyo Metro. The surrounding area is the largest shopping district in Sumida Ward, featuring several large department stores, numerous small sho ...

, 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.

Notes

References

External links

Tokyo 2020 on the International Paralympic Committee website

Tokyo 2020 Official Homepage
{{NPCsin2020SummerParalympics Paralympics Summer Paralympics 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