April 2019
There is much buzz surrounding the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, but not always for the right reasons.
Next year’s games will be a first for many Olympic enthusiasts thanks to an increase in the variety of sports that will be featured next year. Baseball and softball will return after a several years’ hiatus. And an ongoing tourism boom and the location in one of the world’s largest yet most accessible cities may break all time fan attendance records.
But the 2020 Games organizing committee is struggling in the area of leadership, though the event is a little over a year away.
The other day the government’s head of the Olympic organizing effort was forced to resign by the prime minister, according to news reports. He was caught on tape making insensitive comments about regions affected by and still recovering from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It was just the latest in a series of embarrassing gaffes he’s made, but this appears to have been the last straw for Abe.
He wasn’t in the job long. The man placed in charge of the Games before him resigned a few months ago, as well, due to an investigation launched by the government of France. French authorities suspect he may have paid bribes to help Tokyo win the opportunity to host for a second time, beating out Istanbul and Madrid. No charges have been filed but he quit anyway in an effort to separate the Olympic effort from the controversy.
Japan became the first Asian nation to host the Summer Olympics in 1964. This country has already hosted two winter games, in Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.
But folks here in Japan aren’t letting the Games’ political problems dent their excitement ahead of next year’s opening ceremony.
The forthcoming games already feature heavily on television programs and commercials. Olympic-themed goods have been on sale of quite some time. And many of the athletes expected to compete have become household names. To this nation’s credit, the 2020 Paralympic Games are receiving just as much attention, if not more so, than the main event.
Aside from the return of baseball and softball, the 2020 Olympics will break new ground, setting a high bar for 2024.
New sports Japan will introduce to the Games include indoor rock climbing (called sport climbing), skateboarding, surfing, and karate, a Japanese martial art that originated in Okinawa.
--- Nathanial Gronewold
Nathanial Gronewold is a Masters student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Next year’s games will be a first for many Olympic enthusiasts thanks to an increase in the variety of sports that will be featured next year. Baseball and softball will return after a several years’ hiatus. And an ongoing tourism boom and the location in one of the world’s largest yet most accessible cities may break all time fan attendance records.
But the 2020 Games organizing committee is struggling in the area of leadership, though the event is a little over a year away.
The other day the government’s head of the Olympic organizing effort was forced to resign by the prime minister, according to news reports. He was caught on tape making insensitive comments about regions affected by and still recovering from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It was just the latest in a series of embarrassing gaffes he’s made, but this appears to have been the last straw for Abe.
He wasn’t in the job long. The man placed in charge of the Games before him resigned a few months ago, as well, due to an investigation launched by the government of France. French authorities suspect he may have paid bribes to help Tokyo win the opportunity to host for a second time, beating out Istanbul and Madrid. No charges have been filed but he quit anyway in an effort to separate the Olympic effort from the controversy.
Japan became the first Asian nation to host the Summer Olympics in 1964. This country has already hosted two winter games, in Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998.
But folks here in Japan aren’t letting the Games’ political problems dent their excitement ahead of next year’s opening ceremony.
The forthcoming games already feature heavily on television programs and commercials. Olympic-themed goods have been on sale of quite some time. And many of the athletes expected to compete have become household names. To this nation’s credit, the 2020 Paralympic Games are receiving just as much attention, if not more so, than the main event.
Aside from the return of baseball and softball, the 2020 Olympics will break new ground, setting a high bar for 2024.
New sports Japan will introduce to the Games include indoor rock climbing (called sport climbing), skateboarding, surfing, and karate, a Japanese martial art that originated in Okinawa.
--- Nathanial Gronewold
Nathanial Gronewold is a Masters student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences