TOKYO: The president of the Japanese Olympic Committee said on
Tuesday that if Tokyo can pull off next year’s Summer Games, then the city of
Sapporo could be in good standing to hold the 2030 Winter Olympics.
Yasuhiro
Yamashita, a former Olympic gold medalist in judo, acknowledged in a news
conference that it will be difficult holding the Olympics next year. And he
pointed out that nobody can know the state of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19)
pandemic in a few months or next year.
“We have heard
many concerns about whether the Olympics and Paralympics can be actually held
as well as suggestions for canceling the games,” Yamashita said. “We are
currently going through the situation that nobody has ever experienced before
and we would like to focus on what we should do now.”
He added that
if the Tokyo Olympics are held successfully, then we can have a clear prospect
for the possibility of hosting 2030 in Sapporo.
The marathons
and race walks for next year’s Olympics have been moved to Sapporo because of
cooler weather. That will give the northern Japanese city a chance to show off
to IOC officials.
Japan has
already acknowledged its interest in 2030 but could get competition from Salt
Lake City, or a Spanish bid linked to Barcelona and the Pyrenees.
Sapporo held
the 1972 Winter Olympics, and Salt Lake was the host in 2002. Barcelona held
the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Beijing will
hold the 2022 Winter Olympics, followed in 2026 by the Italian cities Milan and
Cortina Ampezzo.
Yamashita also
said he backed proposals by the Tokyo organising committee and the
Switzerland-base International Olympic Committee (IOC) to simplify next year’s
Olympics.
Neither the IOC
nor local organisers have offered any specifics about what will be eliminated.
They have said that sports events will not be cut, nor will the quota of 11,000
Olympic athletes and 4,400 Paralympians.
Estimates in
Japan suggest the one-year delay will cost $2 billion to $6 billion, with most
of the expense falling to Japanese taxpayers.
“We will not
gain support from Japanese citizens unless we simplify the games and focus less
on flamboyancy and concentrate more on efficiency,” Yamashita said.
