Tokyo prepares for 2020, facing rising costs and new sports

By Ina L. McManus in Sports January 10, 2020

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is getting ready for a strenuous exercise with the subsequent Summer Olympics headed her way.

The exercise started out when she acquired the Olympic flag Sunday in the authentic handover ceremony from her Rio counterpart, Mayor Eduardo Paes.

“I hope the flag is not too heavy,” she joked the day earlier than. “Despite the fact that I’ve killed my muscle tissues to get hold of it properly.”

the following three Olympics are in Asian countries which have already held video games: Tokyo’s Summer season video games in 2020, sandwiched among Iciness Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in 2018 and in Beijing in 2022.

This can come as a comfort to the International Olympic Committee after attempting games in Sochi, Russia, and Rio.

That doesn’t mean they’ll be smooth, especially for Tokyo.

“I don’t assume that you could ever relax,” said John Coates, the IOC member who heads the inspection team for Tokyo.

“There are some large issues, even for Tokyo.”

Here’s a have a look at a number of them Network Posting.

THE Prices

The new countrywide stadium is an example of Tokyo’s growing Charges — or underestimating Charges. The original bill was predicted to be USD 1 billion, however, the price soared to 3 times that much in a layout via the late architect Zaha Hadid.

Organizers scrapped that layout and adopted a new one with the aid of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. The price will nonetheless be a minimum 50 percent greater than the original estimate with finishing touch set for November 2019.

“I’m able to now not leave white elephants for the taxpayers,” Kirk advised newshounds in Rio, simply weeks after being elected Tokyo’s first girl governor. “The citizens of Tokyo are the taxpayers. We have to have the expertise of the taxpayers approximately whatever we do.”

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Expenses are rising elsewhere, too.

The Tokyo organizing committee’s operating price range turned into 350 billion yen ($3.5 billion) inside the original bid file. However, officers say it will likely be revised upward to account for inflation and unexpected Charges.

That is the budget for jogging the games themselves and does now not include constructing roads and other infrastructure. Tokyo organizers say 50 percentage of the venues already exist, although they’ve now not made public the cost of building new venues and getting ready the city.

Building scaled-down venues — following Rio’s version — may want to still be steeply-priced in Japan. The homes ought to be earthquake-proof, and Eastern taste might not accept stripped-down structure.

TRANSPORTATION

Tokyo proposed compact video games in its winning bid three years in the past. However, venues had been spread out to save money and take gain of present systems.

Tokyo’s games are divided into primary sectors — a quarter around Tokyo Bay, and a so-called History sector, that’s anchored around The brand new countrywide stadium.

The remaining venues are scattered around, from cycling in Izu, southwest of Tokyo, to football venues in Sapporo, Miyagi, Saitama, and Yokohama.

“You’ll tour a lot due to the fact there isn’t the attention,” Coates said. “If you visit the Historical past vicinity, they’re all stand-by-me (venues) in large part.”

Tokyo has a complicated delivery device, However it’s crowded and not specially foreigner-friendly. Coates started getting around might be greater complex than Rio, which turned into difficult in a town sliced up by the sea, mountains, and negative roads.

“they have a very good transport infrastructure that connects all elements of the city,” Coates stated. “I assume they’re up for it, no fear approximately that, But you can’t say it’s going to be clean.”

Tokyo’s slender roads are a problem, and so are the 3 million on who travel day by day from the outskirts to the metropolis’s middle.

“We’ll ask the residents for numerous kinds of cooperation,” Kirk stated.

THE Occasions

Five sports have been added to Tokyo’s application: baseball-softball, skateboarding, browsing, karate and game hiking. They input below new IOC guidelines that allow cities to suggest Events from their very own video games.

The brand new sports will add 18 Activities and 474 athletes to this system. The Tokyo video games will function 33 sports and approximately eleven,000 athletes, in comparison to the standard range of 28 sports and 10,500 athletes.

The brand new sports activities may additionally give Japan a few benefits, element clearly in baseball and softball, which might be very popular in the u . S . A ..

Japan received forty-one medals in Rio, topping its preceding record of 38. Search for the home country to get every other medal leap from being a host.

The competition timetable is certain to create anxiety. Night Occasions in Tokyo will take area within the early morning in North The us — and vice versa. This isn’t perfect for U.S. Rights-holder NBC. some Events might be moved around to work higher on television.

Japanese Olympic committee President Tsunekazu Takeda confronted a comparable hassle as the sports director of the 1998 Nagano Iciness Olympics.

“Athletes-first should be the concept,” he stated. “We need, to be honest to the athletes, But of direction, I willed make any decisive comments because this needs to be negotiated. However, I am hoping the athletes first idea prevails.”

girl Strength

girl politicians have key roles in directing Tokyo’s video games — Governor Koike and Tamayo Marukawa, who became lately named Olympic minister by way of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Each is former tv newscasters, and Marukawa will be the link between Tokyo’s authorities and the countrywide authorities.

Koike said Jap ladies have done properly in sports, But Japanese society has been slower to sell ladies to management positions in commercial enterprise and politics.

girls won nearly half of-of Japan’s 41 medals in Rio — four gold medals on my own in girls’ wrestling.

“Our women athletes are having outstanding performances,” Kirk stated.

“Unfortunately, the share of ladies legislators in Japan remains low. Ms. Hillary Clinton frequently refers to a pitcher ceiling for girls. I assume we’ve got an iron ceiling in Japan.”