2 flagbearers, male & female, allowed at Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony

Geneva, March 5 The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has allowed to have two flagbearers a male and a female for each team at the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony.

The IOC also announced that Olympic Games, scheduled to be played between July 24-August 9, will be the "first gender-balanced Olympic Games in history with 48.8 per cent women's participation".

"Today, the IOC EB also decided that there should be for the first time ever at least one female and one male athlete in every one of the 206 teams and the IOC Refugee Olympic Team participating at the Games of the Olympiad," said IOC President Thomas Bach on Wednesday.

"Additionally, we have also changed the rules to allow National Olympic Committees to nominate a female and a male athlete to jointly bear their flag during the opening ceremony.

"We encourage all National Olympic Committees to make use of this option. With these two initiatives, the IOC is sending another extremely strong message to the world that gender balance is a reality at the Olympic Games," Bach added.

( With inputs from IANS )