Features
Olympic Hurdles
Plans for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games continue to stumble along. Several weeks ago, the newly installed governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, suggested that the rowing and canoe events be moved to Naganuma Boat Park in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture, which is about 250 miles north of the capital.
Photo: AP Photo / Shizuo Kambayashi
Cars drive past the site of the new national stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, in Tokyo Oct. 2.
The cost of constructing a new boating venue in Tokyo Bay has ballooned recently due to a shortage of construction materials and workers, and Koike has balked at the estimated 50 billion yen ($500 million) price tag. However, the International Olympic Committee and the various international organizations representing boating sports don’t want the events moved to Miyagi and are holding out for Tokyo Bay.
Nevertheless, if Tokyo insists it can’t afford to build a new facility, the IOC has reportedly proposed moving the events to South Korea, to a boat park in Chungju that was used for the 2004 Asian Games. The IOC has not explained why Chungju, which “has some problems in terms of traffic access” according to the local Asahi Shimbun newspaper, is better than Miyagi but apparently it has something to do with the existing course in Korea, which “can be changed within only several months to one that can host the Olympic events.”
However, according to Mainichi Shimbun, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government gave the IOC a completely false estimate for construction of the rowing venue when it made its bid for the Games two years ago, so the IOC’s frustration is understandable. At the time, Tokyo claimed the cost would be 9.8 billion yen. It will actually be five times that amount. Well before the final bid, Tokyo had submitted an estimate of 103 billion yen, which the IOC insisted the city had to reduce.
Consequently, it came up with a bogus number. An unnamed official told Mainichi that the figure provided to the IOC was “baseless.” The crisis was averted, at least temporarily, with the arrival of IOC President Thomas Bach on Oct. 18.
He met with Koike and pledged to achieve a “significant reduction” in costs for the Games while insisting on keeping current venue plans. Bach was adamant that Tokyo stick to “the rules of the competition after [its] election” as the host city.
To that end the four principal interests – the IOC, the Tokyo organizers, the prefectural government, and the central government – will hold discussions as early as next month.