As a follow-up to our report regarding yesterday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony and subsequent exhibition demonstrations at the Tokyo Olympic Aquatics Centre, inside videos of the public tour have now been emerging to give us a detailed glimpse of where next year’s aquatic action will take place.
Costing an estimated $542 million (USD), the newly-built Aquatics Center’s footprint spans 700,000 square feet and can accommodate an estimated 15,000 spectator seats. Olympic swimming, diving, artistic swimming, as well as Paralympic swimming events are slated to be held at the venue.
For perspective, the temporary pool constructed for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio cost ~$38 million, while the permanent London Aquatics Centre had a price tag of ~$351 million USD in 2012 using today’s exchange rate.
Yuriko Koike, governor of Tokyo said during the tour, “With this venue finished, the construction of the new Olympic venues for the Tokyo 2020 Games is now complete.”
The entire venue opening event, which featured Rikako Ikee swimming an exhibition relay, was postponed from its original timeframe of March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the time of publishing the nation of Japan has had 95,835 coronavirus cases reported (.076% of the population), resulting in 1,706 deaths.
VIDEO 🇯🇵 Tokyo opened a 15,000-seat swimming venue for the Olympic Games next year.
The $542 million Aquatics Centre was completed in February, but its grand opening ceremony scheduled for March was postponed due to the coronavirus https://t.co/xCxABXAMci pic.twitter.com/Bfxxnv9FHH
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) October 24, 2020