TOKYO (AP) – Seiko Hashimoto appeared in seven Olympics: four Winter Olympics and three Summer Olympics. According to historian Dr. Bill Mallon, his seven appearances are the most important for any “multi-season” athlete in the games.
Hashimoto made even more history on Thursday in Japan, where women are still rare in boardrooms and positions of political power.
Hashimoto, 56, was named chairman of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee after a meeting of its executive committee, which is 80% male. He replaces 83-year-old Yoshiro Mori, a former Japanese prime minister who had to resign last week after making sexist comments about women.
Essentially, he said women talk too much.
“I am now here to return what I owe as an athlete and return what I received,” he told the board, speaking through an interpreter in Japanese.
Hashimoto had been the Olympic minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. She also maintained a portfolio on gender equality and women’s empowerment. She said she would be replaced as Olympic minister by Tamayo Marukawa.
He raised the issue of gender speech to almost all male audiences. Even though the leader is now a woman, the issue of gender inequity in Japan remains.
“As a background to my selection, I understand that there is a factor related to gender parity,” he said. She said she hoped to work on the topic but was not specific.
Hashimoto competed in three Summer Olympics (’88, ’92 and ’96) in cycling and in four Winter Olympics (’84, ’88, ’92 and ’94) in speed skating. He won a bronze medal (his only medal) in 1992 in 1,500 meters of speed skating.
Japan-born Naomi Osaka spoke of Hashimoto after her semi-final victory over Serena Williams at the Australian Open, and said “you see the new generation doesn’t tolerate much.”
“I think it’s really good because you’re moving forward, barriers are being broken, especially for women. We have had to fight for so many things to be the same. Even many things are still not the same.
The new president is tied to the Olympics in many ways. He was born in Hokkaido, northern Japan, just five days before the opening ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. His name “Seiko” comes from “seika”, which translates as Olympic flame in English.
According to widespread reports in Japan, Hashimoto was reluctant to take the job and was one of three final candidates considered by a selection committee headed by 85-year-old Fujio Mitarai of Canon camera company.
The selection committee met for three consecutive days, a hasty appointment with the opening of the Olympic Games postponed in just over five months amid a pandemic and one that had many problems.
Surveys show that about 80% of Japanese want the Olympics to be canceled or postponed again. There are fears of bringing tens of thousands of athletes and others to Japan, which has controlled the coronavirus better than most countries.
There is also opposition to high costs.
The official cost is $ 15.4 billion, although there are several government audits According to a study from Oxford University, the price is at least $ 25 billion, the most expensive Summer Olympics on record.
Naming a woman could be a breakthrough for gender equality in Japan, where women are under-represented in boardrooms and in politics. Japan ranks 121st out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum’s annual ranking on gender equality.
Mori, before leaving office, tried to offer the job last week to 84-year-old Saburo Kawabuchi, a former head of the country’s football federation. But reports of the closed-door deal were widely criticized on social media, Japanese talk talks and newspaper reports.
Kawabuchi quickly withdrew from any other consideration.
Hashimoto is not without critics. A Japanese magazine in 2014 published photographs of its figure skater Daisuke Takahashi at a party during the Sochi Olympics, suggesting it was sexual harassment. He later apologized and Takahashi said he did not feel harassed.
It was also reported that two other former Olympians opted for Mori’s job: Yasuhiro Yamashita, the chairman of the Japanese Olympic Committee who won gold in judo in 1984, and Mikako Kotani, who won two bronze medals in synchronized swimming. in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Kotani is the sporting director of the organizing committee of the Tokyo Olympics. The leadership of this committee is dominated by men, who make up 80% of the executive board.
Japan began deploying vaccines on Wednesday, a critical move that could boost the Olympics. He goes a few months behind Britain, the United States and other countries.
Widespread vaccination is unlikely in Japan when the Olympics open on July 23 with 11,000 athletes, followed by the Paralympics on August 24 with 4,400 athletes. The plan is to keep athletes in a “bubble” in the athletes ’village, venues and training areas. The IOC has said it will not require vaccinating “participants,” but it does encourage it.
In addition to athletes, tens of thousands of officers, media, sponsors and broadcasters will also have to enter Japan. Many of them will operate out of the “bubble” in a television-driven Olympics and the billions the IOC receives for the sale of broadcasting rights.
Hashimoto’s first challenge could be to remove the torch relay that begins March 25 in northeastern Japan. He will travel across the country with about 10,000 runners and finish at the opening ceremony in Tokyo.
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