Tokyo 2020 Olympic Trivia
Below are some of the more interesting tidbits of information about the Tokyo Olympics. For a selection of more trivia, see also the general Olympic Trivia page, Olympic Firsts and Oldest and Youngest.
Tokyo Trivia
- This will be Tokyo's second time hosting the Olympic Games, joining Athens, Paris, London and Los Angeles as one of just five cities chosen to host the Summer Olympics more than once. London is the only city to host the summer Games three times, though this is also Tokyo's third time to be awarded the Summer games. The first time was in 1940, but due to the war between Japan and China they the Games were moved to Helsinki before being canceled anyway due to World War 2. The second time was in 1964 and third will be in 2021!
- It will be Japan's fourth time to host the Olympics: Tokyo 1964 and Tokyo 2020 Summer games, Sapporo 1972 and Nagano 1998 Winter games.
- 11-year-old Syrian table tennis player Hend Zaza is the youngest Olympian in more than 50 years. Not only is she is the youngest competitor in these Tokyo Games, she is the youngest table tennis entrant of all time and the youngest overall Olympian since the 1968 Winter Olympics. The oldest person ever to compete in table tennis at the Olympics is China-born woman Ni Xia Lian, now representing Luxembourg, who will be 58 years old in Tokyo.
- The oldest competitor at the Tokyo Olympics is 66 year old Mary Hanna, who became the second-oldest female Olympian ever when she competed in equestrian for Australia.
- New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard is to become the first openly transgender athlete born make to compete in a female event at the Olympic Games, when she competed in Tokyo (there were other transgender athletes, though they were born female and competing in female events).
- Siblings Uta Abe and Hifumi Abe from Japan won individual gold medals in judo on the same day at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
- San Marino and Turkmenistan took home their first-ever Olympic medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games. Tiny San Marino, with a population of fewer than 35,000, became the least populous nation to ever take home an Olympic medal.
- Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine and his coach Amar Benikhlef were banned from the sport for 10 years after Nourine withdrew from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to avoid facing an Israeli opponent.
Related Pages
- Olympic Games Trivia
- About the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games
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