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JOC to Eliminate Olympic Team Captain Position to Reduce Pressure

On Mar. 19 a Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) spokesperson said in an interview that the position of team captain will be eliminated from the Japanese Olympic team at this summer's Paris Olympics, which begin July 26. The move is intended to reduce the burden placed upon the athlete chosen. It will be discussed at the JOC Board of Directors meeting on Mar. 21 and, if approved, will make Paris the first summer Olympics without a Japanese team captain since the position was created at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, Japan's first post-war participation.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) currently requires each country to nominate one man and one woman to serve as flag bearers, but it has no rules specifically regarding team captains. Japan has traditionally named a team captain, but the JOC is reviewing the practice as the pressure it places on the athlete chosen and the requirement for them to participate in pre-Games events makes selecting candidates difficult. On a trial basis, last year team captains were not named for international competitions like the Hangzhou Asian Games. The JOC has been working to collect internal opinions on the outcome in prep for the Paris Olympics.

The team captain's main duty is to express the team members' determination at its inauguration ceremony before the start of the Games. No team captain has won a gold medal since Toshihiko Koga in men's judo at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Since then athletes considered serious contenders for gold who were named team captain like women's wrestler Saori Yoshida at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics have not been able to reach the top of the podium.

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