If you watched even a few minute of the Summer Olympics coverage you’ve probably noticed that despite it being 2021 right now everything still says “Tokyo 2020”. Obviously the games were postponed last year due to the pandemic. But why didn’t they change the year?
The International Olympic Committee decided to keep everything as “2020” because like most things… it all comes down to money. There are many things like the torches, medals, other branding type items and merchandise that were made well before the pandemic started as ‘Tokyo 2020,’. If they were to chance everything to 2021 the name change alone would have cost a ridiculous amount of money. So, even though it’s super confusing… that’s why we’re stuck with Tokyo 2020.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Brian Snyder