Medal ceremonies
Athletes who win medals will have to put those medals around their own necks. To keep their distance in the wake of concerns about the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus), Olympics officials will present the gold, silver, and bronze medals on a try.

Starting early
Events in two sports, softball and women's soccer, start before the Opening Ceremony:

• Softball is one of a handful of events returning this year. The last Olympic athletes to win gold in the sport were Japan, in 2008.
• The U.S. women's soccer team will be looking to be the first ever reigning World Cup championship team to also become Olympic champion.

Baseball
Also returning after a 13-year absence is baseball. South Korea won the gold medal in 2008. The sport was a demonstration sport seven times (the most of any sport) before becoming official in 1992. Cuba won that year and four years later and eight years later. (The U.S. won in 2000.)

Making their debut
New sports are karate, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing:

• Karate (which originated in Okinawa) will feature two disciplines, kata (forms) and kumite (sparring).
• Skateboarding athletes will compete in two events, park (a bowl-shaped course) and street (featuring rails, ramps, and stairs).
• The three disciplines of sport climbing will be boldering (4 minutes of multiple ascents of one 4-meter-high wall), lead climbing (as high as possible up a 15-meter-high wall in 6 minutes), and speed climbing (as fast as possible up a 15-meter-high wall).
• Surfers will compete in the ocean 40 miles from Tokyo, off Shidashita Beach. Heats of 20 to 25 minutes will feature four athletes at a time. Each wave can have just one rider, and judges will rank surfers on the difficulty of the maneuvers that they do.

Not attending
So far, athletes from two countries will not be attending:

• North Korea has announced that it will not send athletes to the Tokyo Olympics. The country previously skipped the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
• The International Olympic Committee has banned Russia from officially sending athletes to any international competitions for multiple years. Any Russian athlete who can prove that they have no history of doping will be able to compete, representing the Russian Olympic Committee. Any of those athletes who win medals will not see their home country's flag displayed and will not hear their national anthem during the medal ceremony.