The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020) has announced several operational changes to the competition schedule for next year’s Games.
Changes to athletics, rhythmic gymnastics, and marathon swimming are now in place, with start times for the latter sport implemented as a means of counteracting the heat expected for next year’s Games.
Below are the new start times for marathon swimming next year (all times local). These times were adjusted from the original start time of 7:00 am local.
4 Aug: Marathon Swimming (Odaiba Marine Park), Women’s 10km: start time: 06:30, end time: 09:10
5 Aug: Marathon Swimming (Odaiba Marine Park), Men’s 10km: start time: 06:30, end time: 09:10
As a refresher, swimmers who competed at the open water test event in August 2019 expressed concerns over temperature. The 2019 test event started at 7 a.m. with the air temperature already over 30 degrees Celsius (~86 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Japanese capital city.
At the time, Ous Mellouli of Tunisia, a 3-time Olympic medalist, said of the conditions, “That was the warmest race I’ve ever done. It felt good for the first 2km then I got super overheated.”
Based on FINA’s rules, athletes may not race when the water temperature exceeds 31 degrees Celcius (88 Fahrenheit).
According to Weather Atlas, the average high temperature for Tokyo in August is 87.4 degrees Fahrenheit with the average heat index reaching 100.4 Fahrenheit. The average relative humidity in August there is 73%.
Looking at the relative temperature in Rio, Brazil, which was the site of the previous edition of the Summer Olympic Games, on August 4th in 2016 the high temperature was 75 degrees with humidity at 73%. The next day the temperature reached 79 degrees.