(ATR) Leaders of the bid from Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics say a positive report from the IOC means new motivation as they head to a crucial presentation next week in Lausanne.
The section on Tokyo in the 110-page report of the IOC Evaluation Commission praises the bid roundly, from its compact venue plan to the $4 billion development fund already set aside for the Games, to the city’s hotel capacity.
"Everybody’s motivation is being strengthened, that is going to be the key to the bid," said Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Naoki Inose at a press conference following the release of the report. The report is the result of visits the 15-member panel made in March to Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid.
Veering into hyperbole, the governor said Tokyo 2020 "is the embodiment of the dream of mankind."
Tsunekazu Takeda, bid president, IOC member and Japanese NOC president said that the report indicates that there is no need for Tokyo to adjust the presentation it will make next week to members of the IOC.
"There are no major findings," Takeda noted. "We will go ahead with what we are preparing,"he said.
"We improved and all IOC concerns were addressed," he said of the experience gained from Tokyo’s unsuccessful bid for 2016.
The three bids will make hour-long presentations to the IOC July 3 in Lausanne. The so-called technical briefing is meant to inform the members of the plans of each city for the Games. The IOC votes for the 2020 host Sep.7 inBuenos Aires.
Takeda, Inose and bid CEO Masato Mizuno spent only about 10 minutes taking questions from the Japanese press.
Expressing his satisfaction with the findings of the IOC commission, Takeda said "we are not going to introduce anything new" in these final months to the IOC vote.
But he did say "passion is needed" for Tokyo to rise above the competition.
Inose said it will be important to show "Japanese have a spirit of hospitality".
Reported by Ed Hula
20 Years at #1: Your best source of 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.
