Tokyo Roads To Beat The Heat

The marathon course of the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020 in Tokyo is planned to be paved with a heat-shielding material.

Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee announced that the roads of the city will be paved with a special coating that is expected to suppress temperature rises by as much as eight degrees. The project is a part of the extreme heat countermeasures being implemented for the Games. A portion of Aoyama Avenue had already been paved with a special coating that reflects infrared rays, and 1984 Los Angeles Olympic marathon runner Toshihiko Seko and wheelchair marathoner Nobukazu Hanaoka participated in a test run on an intensely hot and humid day. Both athletes agreed that the temperature of the specially coated road surface was much lower than that of the uncoated surfaces.

The marathon events in Tokyo are scheduled to 6:00 am, with forecasted temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius at that time of the day during the season.