All the athletes who win a medal at Tokyo Olympics 2020 will now be allowed to remove their masks and pose for media for 30 seconds, as per revised COVID-19 Olympics protocols. The International Olympics Committee on Sunday updated guidelines on Sunday allowing the winners to briefly remove the masks during the podium ceremony.

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“It has been decided today, in line with the Tokyo 2020
Playbooks, to adapt the victory ceremony protocol in order to allow athletes to
have a physically distanced image on the podium without their masks on for 30
seconds, and a group photo with masks on the gold-medal step,” said the
IOC in a statement.

“…the victory ceremony protocol has been adapted to allow athletes to have an image for the media that captures their faces and their emotions during a unique moment in their sporting career, as well as to celebrate the achievements of all the medallists together,” the statement further read.

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However, the committee clarified that this updation does not allow the other athletes to join each other on the gold-medal platform.

“At no point during this limited time (photo op) should
the athletes be invited to join each other on the gold-medal platform. They
must remain on their dedicated platform respecting the original distance,” it said.

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As per COIVID norms being followed at the Olympics, winning athletes are required to wear the medals around their neck by themselves rather than a dignitary doing it for them.

Considering the COVID pandemic situation in the country, the committee took an unprecedented decision of barring the spectators inside the Olympic Games venue. This is the first Olympics to be held without live spectators. The decision was taken after Japan began reporting a surge in the COVID-19 cases.  

Also, it is mandatory for all the participants to wear masks and practice social distancing at all the time except while eating, drinking, sleeping, training, or competing.