(ATR) The Japan Sports Agency set lofty goals for the country’s athletes, seeking to earn the most gold medals in the country’s history at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
President of the JSA Daichi Suzuki says he wants Japan to take home 20 gold medals at the Olympics on home soil, four more than the country has ever won at a single Olympics.
In order to reach this milestone, Suzuki wants to use the upcoming Games in Rio de Janeiro as a stepping stone. He wants to see 10 gold medals earned by Japan at Rio 2016, a three-gold improvement from the country’s performance at London 2012.
"One of the reasons we set these goals is that when top athletes are successful, they inspire citizens to get involved in sports," Suzuki said. "It creates a virtuous cycle."
The best performance by Japan at the Olympics came at the first Summer Games hosted by the country in 1964. Japan took home 16 gold medals at Tokyo 1964, inspiring top-five finishes by the country in the next three editions of the Games.
Suzuki, a gold medalist from Seoul 1988, was appointed as president of the JSA on Oct. 1 when the government agency was established to help increase Japan’s international competitiveness.
Suzuki gave a linchpin on what he considers vital to improving Japan's performances.
"In order to emerge to the top level of sports on a global basis, perhaps we need to focus not so much on harmony and cooperation but at times place emphasis on autonomy and creativity."
Written by KevinNutley
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribersonly.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
