Tokyo selected as host city for 2020 Summer Olympics

Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Olympics after beating out Istanbul in the final round by 60 votes to 36.

In the first round of voting Saturday by International Olympic Committee members, Madrid and Istanbul were tied at 26 votes each, against 42 for Tokyo. In the tiebreaker to decide the first to be eliminated, Madrid was left out after getting 45 votes against 49 for Istanbul.

Tokyo was in the lead from the first round of balloting and almost doubled Istanbul in the final round. The 6036 result recalled the result four years ago when Rio de Janeiro beat Madrid 6632.

Both Madrid 2012 and Madrid 2016 obtained 32 votes, so not only did the city suffer its earliest elimination this year but also its 26 votes is the worstever result in terms of ballots received.

The early elimination of the Spanish capital was a surprise to many observers who had predicted Istanbul would be bounced out first and that the contest would be tightly contested between Madrid and Tokyo.

The number of candidates in this year’s IOC host city election three is the lowest since the battle to put on the 1988 Summer Olympics came down to Seoul and Nagoya, Japan.