2020 Summer Olympics

The 2020 Summer Olympics, officially called the Games of the XXXII Olympiad and branded as Tokyo 2020, were an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021, in Tokyo, Japan. Some of the early sporting events began on 21 July 2021. The Games were first planned for July and August 2020, but on 24 March 2020 they were postponed until 2021 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This was the only time the Olympic Games have been postponed. Some earlier Games had been cancelled but never rescheduled. The name "Tokyo 2020" was kept for marketing purposes.

Because of a state of emergency in the Greater Tokyo Area, most events were behind closed doors, and no public spectators were allowed. These were the only Olympic Games held without official spectators. The postponement and the extra challenges caused by the pandemic made the 2020 Games the most costly ever, with a total spending of over $20 billion.

Tokyo was chosen as the host city at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 7 September 2013. These Games were the fourth Olympics held in Japan, after the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, and the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. Tokyo also became the first city in Asia to host the Summer Olympic Games twice. The 2020 Games were the second of three Olympics held in a row in East Asia, after the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and before the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.

New events were added to existing sports, including 3x3 basketball and freestyle BMX. Mixed-gender team events were also added to a number of sports, and Madison cycling returned for men and was introduced for women. New International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules let the host city's organizing committee add new sports to the Olympic program for just one Games. The sports added by the Japanese Olympic Committee were baseball and softball, karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding. Karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding made their Olympic debuts there, and the last three have stayed on the Olympic program.

The United States finished first on the medal table, with 39 gold and 113 total medals. China finished second with 38 gold and 89 total medals. Host nation Japan finished third, setting a record for the most gold and total medals won by its team at an Olympic Games, with 27 gold and 58 total. Great Britain finished fourth with 22 gold and 64 total medals. The Russian delegation, competing as the ROC, finished fifth with 20 gold medals, and it had the third-highest total with 71 medals. Bermuda, the Philippines, and Qatar won their first-ever Olympic gold medals, while Burkina Faso, San Marino, and Turkmenistan won their first-ever Olympic medals.

Bidding process

Bids for the 2020 Summer Olympics

Three cities were candidates to host the Games: Tokyo, Istanbul, and Madrid. The cities of Baku and Doha applied but were not promoted to candidate status. A bid from Rome was withdrawn.

Host city selection

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to choose the host city on 7 September 2013, at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The vote used an exhaustive ballot system. No city got more than half of the votes in the first round. Madrid and Istanbul tied for second place, so a runoff vote removed one of them. The final vote was between Tokyo and Istanbul. Tokyo won with 60 votes to Istanbul's 36, which was more than the 49 votes needed to win.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Main articles: COVID-19 cases at the 2020 Summer Olympics and 2020 Summer Paralympics and List of athletes not attending the 2020 Summer Olympics due to COVID-19 concerns

See also: COVID-19 pandemic in Japan and Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports

In early 2020, people began to worry about how the COVID-19 pandemic might affect athletes and visitors to the Olympics. Tokyo organizers and the International Olympic Committee watched the spread of the disease closely. Some qualifying events were moved to new places, such as the women's basketball qualification, which was played in Belgrade, Serbia, instead of Foshan, China. Many qualifying events were also delayed, and mandatory doping tests were greatly reduced. On 24 March 2020, the Games were postponed to a date in 2021. They were rescheduled to open on 23 July 2021 and close on 8 August 2021, in Tokyo. The Games kept the Tokyo 2020 name for marketing purposes.

Public support for the Games in Japan dropped sharply during a 2021 rise in COVID-19 cases in the country. Some people called for the Games to be cancelled. In July 2021, it was announced that all events in Tokyo would be held behind closed doors, with no spectators, because of a new state of emergency. After the Games, 61% of people surveyed were glad the event had been held without spectators. Once the Games began, COVID-19 cases in Japan rose quickly, especially those caused by the Delta variant. On 9 August, one day after the Olympics ended, daily cases in Japan reached 100,000 for the first time. Cases kept rising until they peaked on 23 August, when 156,931 cases were recorded.

Development and preparations

See also: Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

The Tokyo Organizing Committee was first led by former Japanese prime minister Yoshirō Mori, but he resigned in February 2021 after criticism of sexist comments he made about women in meetings. Seiko Hashimoto was chosen to replace him. Tamayo Marukawa, Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, oversaw the preparations for the Japanese government. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government set aside ¥400B (more than US$3.67B) to pay for hosting the Games. The Japanese government considered easing airspace limits so that more flights could use Haneda and Narita airports.

A new railway line was planned to link both airports through an expansion of Tokyo Station. It would cut travel times from Tokyo Station to Haneda from 30 to 18 minutes, and from Tokyo Station to Narita from 55 to 36 minutes. Private investors would mainly pay for it, at a cost of ¥400B. The East Japan Railway Company (JR East) also planned a new route near Tamachi to Haneda Airport. There were plans to finish the Central Circular Route, Tokyo Gaikan Expressway, and Ken-Ō Expressway sooner. The Yurikamome automated transit line was to be extended from Toyosu Station to Kachidoki Station, passing the Olympic Village site. It was not expected to carry enough people for major events in the Odaiba area on its own.

In April 2018, the Tokyo Organizing Committee signed a partnership with the International Labour Organization to ensure decent work during the preparation and running of the 2020 Olympic Games. In June 2020, the chief executive, Toshirō Mutō, said the committee was looking at ways to streamline the Games and save money.

Venues and infrastructure

Main article: Venues of the 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics

In February 2012, it was announced that Tokyo's former National Stadium, the main venue for the 1964 Summer Olympics, would be renovated at a cost of ¥100B for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Summer Olympics. Zaha Hadid Architects won the design project, which would replace the old stadium with a new 80,000-seat stadium. Many people criticized the design, which was compared to a bicycle helmet and seen as clashing with the nearby Meiji Shrine. The costs also drew widespread disapproval. In 2015, the government reduced the planned permanent seating and dropped the retractable roof to save money. At the end of 2015, the government rejected Hadid's design and chose a new one by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, which was inspired by traditional temples and cost ¥149B. The new stadium could not be finished in time for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. The National Stadium opened on 21 December 2019 and was named the Olympic Stadium for the Tokyo Games. In October 2018, the Board of Audit warned that the total cost of the Olympic venues could go above US$25B.

Most of the 33 competition venues in Tokyo were within 8 kilometers (5 miles) of the Olympic Village. On 16 October 2019, the IOC announced that the marathon and racewalking events would move to Sapporo because of concerns about heat. This was made official on 1 November 2019. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike accepted the decision, even though she believed the events should have stayed in Tokyo. Urban studies scholar Faure noted that the Games had a fairly moderate impact on the city compared with some earlier Olympics. Transport was improved for people with mobility needs, signs were added in other languages, Haneda Airport was expanded, and new sports and event facilities were built, including the new Olympic Stadium. The Olympic Village was built on the Harumi landfill.

Security

In December 2018, the Japanese government banned drones from flying over Olympic and Paralympic venues, as it had for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. In January 2020, counterterrorism drills began in the places where the Games would be held, after intelligence data suggested that terrorist groups could try an attack to gain worldwide attention. In July 2021, before the Games began, the Japan Coast Guard ran counterterrorism drills in Tokyo Bay. Two inflatable boats tried to stop a suspicious ship from reaching the shore.

Volunteers

Applications to volunteer began on 26 September 2018. By 18 January 2019, the Tokyo Organizing Committee had received 204,680 applications. Interviews began in February 2019, and training was planned for October 2019. Volunteers at the venues were to be called "Field Cast" and volunteers in the city "City Cast". These names were picked from a shortlist of four, and were chosen by people who had applied to volunteer. As of early June 2021, about 10,000 of the 80,000 registered volunteers had quit. Media linked the rise in pandemic cases to the large number of people leaving, and more volunteer jobs were expected to be cancelled because of the spectator ban.

Medals

Further information: Olympic medal

In February 2017, the Tokyo Organizing Committee announced an electronics recycling program with the Japan Environmental Sanitation Center and NTT Docomo. People were asked to donate old electronics, such as mobile phones, so their metals could be used to make the medals. The aim was to collect eight tonnes of metal. In May 2018, the committee had half the 2,700 kilograms of bronze it needed but was struggling to find enough silver. The IOC requires gold medals to use silver as a base. The bronze collection was finished in November 2018.

On 24 July 2019, one year before the original opening ceremony, the medal designs were unveiled. Junichi Kawanishi designed them after a nationwide competition. The ribbons have one, two, or three silicone convex lines to tell gold, silver, and bronze medals apart. This feature is shared with the Paralympic medals.

Medals used in the Games

Podium

The podiums were made from plastic waste donated by people across Japan. Artist Asao Tokolo designed them. They were produced using 3D printing technology with 400,000 laundry detergent bottles (24.5 tons) collected from stores and schools over more than nine months. Each podium was built from small, cube-shaped modules that were joined to form the three traditional pedestals. For the Paralympic Games, they could be changed into a flat, accessible platform. The modules were the same shade of blue as the Tokyo 2020 logo. The Olympic rings in front of the podiums were made from recycled aluminum that had first been used to build temporary housing after the major earthquake in eastern Japan in 2011.

Torch relay

The torch relay's slogan was "Hope Lights Our Way". A 2009 IOC ruling banned international torch relays for future Games, so the torch only visited Greece and host nation Japan. The relay began on 12 March 2020 with the flame lighting at the Temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece. The Greek leg ended at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens on 19 March, where the torch was handed to the Japanese team. The flame was flown from Athens International Airport to Higashimatsushima in Japan. The torch was then to travel for a week around Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima, the three areas most affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, under the heading "Flame of Recovery". It was to leave Naraha on 26 March and begin its main relay around Japan, visiting all 47 prefectural capitals.

After the Games were postponed, the torch was kept on display in Fukushima for a month, then moved to Tokyo until the relay restarted in 2021. On 23 July 2020, a promotional video showed Japanese swimmer Rikako Ikee carrying the lantern inside the National Stadium, comparing the return from the pandemic to her own return to sport after being diagnosed with leukemia. On 20 August 2020, it was announced that the relay would restart in Naraha on 25 March 2021, almost a year later than planned. The route was changed because of public health concerns about crowds, and the relay was held without spectators in some regions under states of emergency. The relay ended at the National Stadium on 23 July, when tennis player Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron at the finale of the opening ceremony. A separate cauldron was lit on the Tokyo waterfront at the Yume No Ohashi Bridge in Odaiba for public viewing. This was only the second time in Olympic history that the cauldron was not shown in the athletics stadium.

Biosecurity protocols

In February 2021, the IOC began releasing "playbooks" with plans for COVID-19 biosecurity rules for athletes, officials, the press, and other staff. The rules included social distancing, good hygiene, face masks (except for athletes during training and competition), and limits on visiting bars, restaurants, shops, and other tourist areas in the Greater Tokyo Area or using public transport. Participants were asked to use Japan's COCOA Exposure Notification app and to be tested at least every four days. Athletes who tested positive could not compete. In May 2021, a paper in The New England Journal of Medicine criticized the playbooks for lacking a rigorous risk assessment.

The IOC recommended vaccination for athletes if vaccines were available to them, but it was not required. In March 2021, the Chinese Olympic Committee offered to cover the cost of the CoronaVac and Sinopharm vaccines for athletes where approved. In May 2021, Pfizer said it would donate doses of its vaccine to national Olympic committees competing in Tokyo. About 93,000 athletes and officials were exempt from quarantine on arrival, but they had to stay in areas separated from the local population. Around 300,000 local staff and volunteers moved in and out of these bubbles, which raised concerns about COVID-19 spreading during the Games.

Because of international travel restrictions, no overseas guests, including spectators and athletes' family and friends, were allowed to attend. On 19 June 2021, Governor Koike announced that public viewing plans had been dropped so that venues such as Yoyogi Park could be used as mass vaccination sites. On 8 July 2021, after Tokyo recorded 920 new cases, Prime Minister Suga declared a new state of emergency, and all events in the Tokyo area were held behind closed doors. The University of Tokyo had earlier projected a new wave of infections if the Games went ahead. Spectators were still allowed at events outside Tokyo, though Fukushima, Hokkaido, and Ibaraki later banned spectators in their areas. The opening ceremony was limited to fewer than 1,000 VIP guests.

Ticketing

Opening ceremony tickets were expected to cost ¥12,000 to ¥300,000, and the most expensive track and field finals were to cost up to ¥130,000. The average ticket price was ¥7,700. Tickets were to be sold through 40,000 shops in Japan and by mail order. International guests would have needed to buy tickets through a third party such as a travel agent. Ticket sales were suspended when the Games were postponed on 24 March 2020, but tickets already bought stayed valid for the new schedule. In March 2021, it was announced that overseas ticket holders would be refunded, and in July, local spectators were also barred from events in Tokyo, Fukushima, and Hokkaido. Hashimoto pointed to travel restrictions and the need to protect the health care system.

Cultural festival

The Nippon Festival was planned to run alongside the Olympics and Paralympics. It focused on "participation and interaction", an inclusive society, and the recovery of the Tōhoku region. Original plans included Kabuki x Opera, a concert with stage actor Ichikawa Ebizō XI, opera singers Anna Pirozzi and Erwin Schrott, and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and a special sumo tournament at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan. The original program was cancelled in April 2020. In March 2021, it was revised into virtual events or events that followed social distancing rules, including a streamed concert by Wanima. A 10-metre puppet named Mocco, inspired by Naoki Matayoshi and designed by Ryōji Arai, toured Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima to support tsunami recovery, then went to Shinjuku Gyo-en in Tokyo before the Games.

The Games

The opening ceremony was held on 23 July 2021 in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. It included the traditional Parade of Nations. Emperor Naruhito formally opened the Games. At the end of the torch relay, Japanese tennis player Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron. A moment of silence was held for the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and the Munich massacre. The Games had 339 medal events in 33 sports, covering 51 disciplines. Karate, sport climbing, surfing, and skateboarding made their Olympic debut. Baseball and softball returned for one time. New events were also added, including 3×3 basketball, freestyle BMX, and Madison cycling. Before the Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to drop wrestling after the 2012 Summer Olympics, but at the 125th IOC Session it was chosen to return for 2020. Many other sports were considered, including baseball/softball, squash, roller sports, wakeboarding, wushu, and bowling. In 2016, five new sports were approved in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2020 Games only.

See also: Olympic sports

Before the Games, 56 test events were planned to prepare for the Olympics and Paralympics. The first test event was World Sailing's World Cup Series, held at Enoshima in September 2018. All test events planned from 12 March 2020 onward were postponed because of COVID-19.

See also: 2020 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations

North Macedonia has competed under the name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" at every Summer and Winter Games since its debut at the 1996 Summer Olympics, because of the disputed status of its official name. A naming dispute with Greece ended in 2018 with the signing of the Prespa agreement, and the country was officially renamed North Macedonia in February 2019. The Tokyo Games were its first Summer Olympics under the new name. Eswatini, which had competed as Swaziland at ten Summer and Winter Olympics, made its debut under its new name after the king renamed the country in 2018.

On 9 December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Russia from international sport for four years after the Russian government tampered with laboratory data. On 17 December 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the penalty, allowing Russian athletes to compete as "Neutral Athlete" or "Neutral Team" without using the Russian name, flag, or anthem. In February 2021, it was announced that Russia would compete under the acronym "ROC", which stands for the Russian Olympic Committee. On 6 April 2021, North Korea announced it would not take part because of COVID-19 concerns, its first absence from the Summer Olympics since the 1988 Summer Olympics. In September, the Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was banned from the 2022 Winter Olympics for failing to take part in Tokyo. Guinea first said it would not send a delegation but later reversed its decision and confirmed it would take part.

The following 206 teams qualified (including the 104 universality places guaranteed in athletics, under which all 206 NOCs may send competitors regardless of qualification).

There were 11,420 athletes from 206 NOCs:

Calendar

See also: Chronological summary of the 2020 Summer Olympics

The schedule by session was approved by the IOC Executive Board on 18 July 2018, except for swimming, diving, and artistic swimming. A more detailed schedule by event was released on 16 April 2019, but it still did not include boxing. A detailed boxing schedule was released in late 2019.

The original schedule was from 22 July to 9 August 2020. When the Olympics were postponed to 2021, all events were moved back by 364 days, which is one day less than a full year so the days of the week stayed the same. This gave a new schedule of 21 July to 8 August 2021.

All times and dates use Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Medal table

See also: 2020 Summer Olympics medal table and List of 2020 Summer Olympics medal winners

Host nation: Japan

There were two podium sweeps, as follows:

Naoki Satō composed the music for the medal ceremonies. He chose not to use any music special to Japan, because victory ceremonies are for athletes from around the world, and he wanted every medal winner to "feel at ease" on the podium. The flower bouquets came from areas hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, with each flower representing one of the prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima, Iwate, and Tokyo. Sunflowers were grown in Miyagi by families who had lost children in the disaster. White and purple eustomas and Solomon's seals came from a non-profit group in Fukushima, gentians were grown in Iwate, and aspidistras from Tokyo completed the bouquets.

Swimming finals were held in the morning, following earlier practice at swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and figure skating at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, so that primetime broadcasts could be shown live in the Americas. NBC paid large fees for the rights, so the IOC has let NBC influence scheduling to boost US television ratings when possible. In May 2014, NBC agreed to a US$7.75B contract extension to air the Olympics through the 2032 Games. Japanese broadcasters were said to have criticized the decision, since swimming is one of the most popular Olympic events in Japan.

Marketing

The official emblems for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics were unveiled on 25 April 2016. Asao Tokolo designed them after winning a nationwide design contest. The emblem is a ring in an indigo-colored checkerboard pattern, meant to "express a refined elegance and sophistication that exemplifies Japan." The pattern looks like ichimatsu moyo, a design that was popular in Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1867. The designs replaced an earlier emblem that was scrapped after people claimed it plagiarized the logo of the Théâtre de Liège in Belgium. The Games' bid slogan was Discover Tomorrow (in Japanese: 未来（あした）をつかもう, romanized: Ashita o tsukamō). The word ashita means "tomorrow," but it was intentionally spelled as mirai, which means "future." The official slogan United by Emotion was unveiled on 17 February 2020 and was used only in English.

The official mascot was Miraitowa, a figure with blue-checkered ichimatsu moyo patterns inspired by the official emblem. In its fictional story, it has the ability to teleport. Japanese artist Ryo Taniguchi created the mascots, which were chosen through a competition in late 2017 and early 2018. The Tokyo Organizing Committee received 2,042 candidate designs and picked three pairs of unnamed mascots. Japanese elementary school students then made the final choice. The results were announced on 28 February 2018, and the mascots were named on 22 July 2018. Miraitowa's name combines the Japanese words for "future" and "eternity." The mascots were expected to help pay for the Tokyo Games through sales of products and licensing deals. Alongside the main Emblem blue, five other colors were used in the Games' branding: Kurenai red, Ai blue, Sakura pink, Fuji purple, and Matsuba green. These five traditional colors of Japan were used as sub-colors to create variety in the color designs.

Concerns and controversies

Main article: Concerns and controversies at the 2020 Summer Olympics

See also: Belarus 2020 Summer Olympics scandal

Many problems came up while the Tokyo Games were being prepared. On 10 December 2018, the French financial crimes office began an investigation of Tsunekazu Takeda, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, over a 2013 plan to win votes from African IOC members. In 2020, a Japanese businessman admitted giving gifts to IOC officials to support Tokyo's bid. The first Tokyo emblems were withdrawn after plagiarism accusations, and a later lawsuit over copied logo designs was dropped. Logging for the Olympic venues was criticized, and the Organizing Committee admitted in 2018 that 87% of plywood used for the new national stadium came from endangered rainforests. Some events were placed in areas hit by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Although the World Health Organization and the United Nations consider Fukushima safe, some people questioned whether the region should host events, since they believed the Games slowed recovery there.

Other disputes involved politics and fairness. South Korea asked the IOC to ban Japan's Rising Sun Flag, calling it a symbol of Japan's imperialist past that, like the swastika, recalled painful history; the flag had been used in aggressive war, including the attack on Pearl Harbor. According to the Associated Press, the IOC said stadiums should be free of political demonstrations. Russian and South Korean officials objected to a torch relay map that showed the Liancourt Rocks and Kuril Islands as part of Japan. In 2021, TOCOG president Yoshirō Mori resigned after unfair remarks about women, and his successor, Seiko Hashimoto, also faced criticism. Creative director Hiroshi Sasaki resigned after demeaning comments about Naomi Watanabe, and his replacement, Kentarō Kobayashi, was dismissed the day before the opening ceremony over a joke about the Holocaust. Prime Minister of Japan Yoshihide Suga called the jokes unacceptable. Composer Keigo Oyamada resigned after criticism of his past bullying of people with disabilities, such as Down syndrome. Music from the Dragon Quest series, composed by Koichi Sugiyama, was also criticized, with The Daily Beast calling him "notoriously homophobic and ultranationalist." Around 10,000 of 80,000 volunteers quit by early June 2021, and more than 60,000 police were deployed during the Games. Scholars writing for The Conversation questioned whether the IOC and WHO put the health of Japanese citizens first.

Several incidents also happened during the Games. Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was sent to return home from Belarus, but she feared for her safety and went to Warsaw, Poland, after receiving a humanitarian visa from Tokyo's Polish Embassy. Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine and his coach Amar Benikhlef were suspended for 10 years by the International Judo Federation after Nourine refused to fight an Israeli athlete, citing his support for the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Sudan's Mohamed Abdalarasool also withdrew to avoid an Israeli opponent. After the Games, New Zealand diving judge Lisa Wright said that Zhou Jihong, a Chinese Vice President of FINA, verbally attacked her, and FINA's Ethics Panel ordered Zhou to write an apology letter. In 2022, Simon Latimer raised further complaints about Zhou's conduct, and video showed her coaching Chinese divers during competition.

Broadcasting

For a more comprehensive list, see List of 2020 Summer Olympics broadcasters.

The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 reached a global audience of 3.05 billion people, according to independent research done for the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Coverage on Olympic broadcast partners' digital platforms alone generated 28 billion video views, a 139% increase compared with the Olympic Games Rio 2016. This showed how the media landscape was changing and made Tokyo 2020 the first streaming Games and the most watched Olympic Games ever on digital platforms.

Sony and Panasonic partnered with NHK to develop broadcasting standards for 8K resolution television, with a goal to release 8K television sets in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics. In early 2019, Italian broadcaster RAI announced plans to use 8K broadcasting for the Games. NHK broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies, and some events, in 8K. Telecom company NTT Docomo signed a deal with Finland's Nokia to provide 5G-ready baseband networks in Japan in time for the Games. Audio maker Audio-Technica was chosen by NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, to provide microphone and headphone equipment for the production of the Games with the IOC.