The Tokyo Olympics organizing committee yesterday appointed one of Japan’s most-celebrated female Olympians as its new president, after her predecessor stepped down over his sexist remarks.
Seiko Hashimoto — a seven-time Olympian who was later elected to parliament five times as a member for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party — was named to the post at a Tokyo 2020 board meeting.
Hashimoto earlier in the day resigned from her positions as minister for the Olympics and for gender equality to meet requirements for the new job.
Photo: AFP
“We must make the Olympics, which starts in five months, a safe and reassuring event,” Hashimoto said. “Measures against the coronavirus are the top priority.”
Named after the Japanese word used for the Olympic flame, Hashimoto, 56, is a former Olympic speed skater and track cyclist.
She would be replaced as minister by Tamayo Marukawa, who has previously served in the position, public broadcaster NHK said, keeping the number of women in Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s 20-member Cabinet at two.
One of Hashimoto’s most pressing tasks will be winning back the confidence of sponsors, including the country’s biggest company Toyota, which raised concerns after Yoshiro Mori, the former president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, disparaged women by saying they talk too much in board meetings.
The 83-year-old Mori, a former prime minister with a history of gaffes, stepped down last week.
“For too long, sexism has found comfortable shelter in the Olympic movement,” said Jules Boykoff, a professor at Pacific University Oregon and author of a political history of the Olympics, adding that a woman has only once headed a local organizing committee — at the 2004 Athens Games.
The new post could be one of Hashimoto’s most difficult assignments, coming just five months before the opening ceremony. The Summer Games have already been pushed back by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB