(ATR) IOC Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission chair John Coates says organizers "should all be very proud" of the progress of the Olympic venues.
Coates and Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori were given a tour of the equestrian venue in the Setagaya neighborhood of Tokyo. The venue is located on a park that hosted equestrian events for the 1964 Olympics.
There Coates told reporters that the CoComm had visited the under-construction National Stadium and the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza. The latter will host badminton and preliminary rounds of Modern Pentathlon.
"[The equestrian site] is a very, very impressive venue and it is also very pleasing to us that it is on the site of the ‘64 venue for these two disciplines," Coates said.
"I’d also like to thank publicly Japan Racing for their significant, if I understand correctly, contribution towards the costs of this venue. Thank you I think you should all be very proud of this venue."
Before the CoComm’s arrival in Tokyo Coates said he toured the Sea Forest complex, visiting the rowing, canoe sprint, and equestrian cross country venues. The complex is being built on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay.
Coates singled out the cross country venue as a positive of the Sea Forest complex because it has been "remediated" through the construction.
"After the Games this is a wonderful park for the people of Tokyo and it is something families will be able to use," Coates said. "So congratulations on this Sea Forest, President Mori."
With two years until the 2020 Olympics open, Coates said that organizers had no issues with meeting construction deadlines for the Games. That includes the National Stadium, which had its original plans scrapped after Tokyo won the Olympics.
Coates’ comments stand in stark contrast to pressure the IOC put on Rio de Janeiro two years ahead of the 2016 Olympics. Then construction had not even begun on the Deodoro sport complex, leading to public condemnation of efforts from IOC members including Coates.
Written and reported by Aaron Bauer in Tokyo
For general comments or questions, click here .
25 Years at # 1: Your best source for news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com , for subscribers only.
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.
