Tokyo 2020: Olympic athletes to put on own medals at ceremonies

IOC president Thomas Bach also confirmed that there will be no shake hands and hugs during the ceremonies.

The IOC had earlier said that medallists and ceremony officials would have to wear masks.

Athletes at the Tokyo Olympics will put their medals around their own necks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The “very significant change” to traditional medal ceremonies in the 339 events was revealed on Wednesday by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach.

“The medals will not be given around the neck,” Bach told international media on a conference call from Tokyo. “They will be presented to the athlete on a tray and then the athlete will take the medal him or herself.”

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“It will be made sure that the person who will put the medal on tray will do so only with disinfected gloves so that the athlete can be sure that nobody touched them before,” Bach added.

The Olympic approach is different to football in Europe where UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin personally hung medals around the necks of players at competition finals in recent weeks.

Ceferin also shook hands with Italy’s standout goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma at the Euro 2020 medal and trophy presentation in London on Sunday.

Bach confirmed on Wednesday that in Tokyo “there will be no shake hands and there will be no hugs there during the ceremony”.

Olympic medals are typically presented by an IOC member or a leading official of a sport’s governing body.

The IOC had previously said medallists and ceremony officials would have to wear masks.

The Tokyo Olympics open on July 23 amid a state of emergency and rising numbers of COVID-19 cases in the city.