The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today announced that it is planning to move the Olympic marathon and race walking events to Sapporo, the host city of the Olympic Winter Games 1972. The move to Hokkaido, the northern-most prefecture of Japan, will mean significantly lower temperatures for the athletes during the Olympic Games. In Sapporo, temperatures during the Games period are as much as five to six degrees centigrade cooler during the day than in Tokyo, which is more than 800 kilometres further south.

The plans are part of a wide range of measures already being taken by Tokyo 2020 in consultation with the IOC and the International Federations to mitigate the effects of the temperatures which may occur next summer. The IOC has informed World Athletics about the proposed changes.

This latest initiative by the IOC and Tokyo 2020 comes on top of other heat countermeasures which are already planned and being implemented on the recommendations of the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission Adverse Weather Impact Expert Working Group (the IOC Working Group).

They are:

- Athletics: 5,000m and longer distance races scheduled in the evening athletics sessions and not in the morning sessions, and moving the marathon and race walk events to earlier starting times.

- Rugby: all morning games scheduled to finish before 12 p.m.

- Cycling: mountain bike start time delayed to 3 p.m.

The IOC Working Group identified the marathon and race walk as the events that would put particular heat stress on the athletes.

Regarding other events and competitions, the IOC Working Group concluded previously that the timing of those events should be kept under review and may not need to be changed at this moment, assuming that the prevention, mitigation and treatment measures it recommended for each event and each group (athletes, workforce, officials and spectators) are implemented.

The implementation of the initiative to move the marathon and the race walks will be discussed with all the stakeholders concerned, in particular the host city Tokyo, along with World Athletics, the National Olympic Committees (NOCs), Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and the Rights-Holding Broadcasters (RHBs). The IOC Coordination Commission for Tokyo 2020, chaired by IOC Member John Coates, has dedicated a special session in its meeting from 30 October to 1 November in Tokyo to heat countermeasures.

During its meeting, the Coordination Commission will also have the opportunity to discuss the survey by Tokyo 2020 of the International Federations and their advice regarding heat countermeasures. As part of its athlete-centred approach, the Organising Committee has reached out to each International Federation with a heat countermeasure questionnaire on top of the many measures already taken.