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International Gymnastics Federation President Morinari Watanabe to Run for IOC Head, But Is He a Reformer or Just Another Fool?

The Paris Olympics have just ended and the Paralympics are set to kick off next week on the 28th, but the focus is already shifting to the Los Angeles Olympics 4 years down the road. International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach , 70, will step down from his position at the end of his term next June. The word is that IOC member Morinari Watanabe , 65, president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), is planning to run in the election for Bach's successor in March. If elected, Watanabe would become the first Japanese head of the IOC. While Bach was a gold medalist in the men's fencing team competition at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Watanabe never competed at the Olympics let alone medaled. After joining the Jusco retail chain in 1984, he worked as a salaryman office worker for the Aeon Group, Jusco's renamed parent corporation and served as director of the Japan Gymnastic Association. In 2017 he became FIG's first Asian president. Under Watanabe...
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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 bas...
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Government Shrugs Off Public Criticism of Bach Shopping Trip in Ginza

On Aug. 9 IOC president Thomas Bach  and a female companion were spotted strolling in Tokyo's fashionable Ginza district accompanied by bodyguards. At a press conference following a Cabinet meeting on Aug. 10, Olympic Minister Tamayo Marukawa commented, "Whether something is necessary or an emergency is a judgment that must be made by the individual." Under the state of emergency currently declared for Tokyo, the government has asked residents of the city to refrain from going out in public unless it is absolutely necessary or an emergency. The Olympic Playbook, a collection of rules and regulations covering countermeasures against the coronavirus pandemic, explicitly prohibits athletes, staff and officials from going sightseeing. Bach's actions set off a firestorm of criticism against him on Japanese social media. Given that Bach arrived in Japan on July 8, Minister Marukawa commented, "The important point is that pandemic countermeasures are strictly observed...
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All Olympic Events Within Metropolitan Tokyo to be Held Without Spectators

The IOC, IPC, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Organizing Committee and the National Government held a top-level meeting at 20:00. on July 8 to discuss the issue of spectators at the Tokyo Olympics. It was learned that they have made the decision that all Olympic events within metropolitan Tokyo will be held without spectators.  Following the announcement that a fourth state of emergency will be declared in Tokyo on July 12, the five parties agreed that barring spectators from all events within the city was the prudent move to take to combat the spread of the coronavirus. Multiple sources involved in the discussions confirmed the decision. The issue of spectators at events held at venues outside of Tokyo will be discussed later in a meeting with the relevant local governments. In addition, a decision on the maximum attendance for Paralympic events, scheduled to be made by July 16, was bumped back until after the conclusion of the Olympics in order to better evaluate the situation...
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Running The Original 2020 Tokyo Olympics Marathon Course Part One - Women's Marathon

Today was the original date of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics women's marathon, before the coronavirus hit, before the IOC moved the race to Sapporo. Two years ago I went out and did test runs on the course on Aug. 2 and Aug. 9 at the actual times that the women's and men's marathons were to have been run this year, taking temperature and humidity readings every half hour. Last year I did it three times, once on Aug. 2 , once on Aug. 5 with European marathon champion Koen Naert of Belgium, and again on Aug. 9 , all at the actual race time. It doesn't really matter any more, but for the sake of completion I decided to do it this year too. If a lot of things had gone differently and the world's marathon women had run the streets of Tokyo today, what kind of conditions would they have ended up actually facing? Only one way to find out. The picture at the top is the view down the marathon gate tunnel into the stadium right at the time the lead women would have b...
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South Sudanese National Team Still Training in Maebashi for Postponed Tokyo Olympics

The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games due to the coronavirus crisis was a major setback for countless athletes. But, having come to Japan in November, 2019 for pre-Olympic training, the South Sudanese national track and field team has chosen to use the postponement to its advantage and stay based in Japan. Part of the reasoning behind the postponement of the Games was increasing pressure on the Organizing Committee and the IOC from athletes and sports associations concerned about the cancelation of qualifying events and quarantine restrictions that made it difficult for some athletes to train. Still a young and poor country, in the South Sudan even if athletes want to train the only places to work out are empty fields. It's hard to find the kind of facilities people take for granted in Japan. As a result, when the national team received news of the first-ever Olympic postponement, they decided to stay in Japan until at least July in order to maximize t...
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