TOKYO (AP) – Seiko Hashimoto has appeared in seven Olympics, four in the winter and three in the summer – mostly by any “multi-season” athlete in the games.
She made even more history on Thursday in Japan, where women are still rare in council chambers and political power positions.
Hashimoto, 56, was named chairman of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee after a meeting of its executive committee, which is 80% male. She replaces 83-year-old Yoshiro Mori, a former Japanese prime minister, who was forced to resign last week after making sexist comments about women.
In essence, he said women talk too much.
“I am now here to return what I owe as an athlete and to return what I received,” Hashimoto told the board, according to an interpreter.
Hashimoto was an Olympic minister in the office of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. She also held a portfolio dealing with gender equality and women’s empowerment. She said she would be replaced as Olympic minister by Tamayo Marukawa.
She has repeatedly brought the issue of gender equality and focused on issues to the organizing committee, which is dominated by men, has no female vice-presidents and has an executive board of 80% men. It has about 3,500 employees.
“Of course, it is very important what Tokyo 2020 does as an organizing committee on gender equality,” she said, sitting between two men – CEO Toshiro Muto and spokesman Masa Takaya. “I think it will be important for Tokyo 2020 to practice equality.”
International Olympic Committee Chairman Thomas Bach said Hashimoto was the “perfect choice” for the position.
“With the appointment of a woman as chair, the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee is also sending a very important signal regarding gender equality,” Bach said in a statement.
Hashimoto competed in cycling in three Summer Olympics (1988, 1992 and 1996) and in figure skating in four Winter Olympics (1984, 1988, 1992 and 1994). She won a bronze medal – her only medal – at the 1992 Albertville Speed Skating Games.
According to historian Dr. Bill Mallon, his seven appearances are the most for any “multi-season” athlete in games.
Naomi Osaka, born in Japan, talking about Hashimoto after her victory in the semifinal over Serena Williams at the Australian Open, said “you see that the new generation does not tolerate many things”.
“I feel it’s very good because you’re taking a step forward, the barriers are being broken, especially for women,” Osaka said. “We had to fight for so many things to be equal. Even a lot of things are still not equal. ”
The new president is linked to the Olympics in many ways. She was born in Hokkaido, northern Japan, just five days before the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games in 1964. Her name “Seiko” comes from “seika”, which translates to Olympic flame in English.
According to reports widely circulated in Japan, Hashimoto was reluctant to take up the post and was one of three finalists considered by a selection committee led by 85-year-old Fujio Mitarai from Canon camera company .
The selection committee met for three consecutive days, a hasty meeting, with the opening of the Olympic Games postponed in just over five months in the middle of a pandemic and facing countless problems.
Polls show that about 80 percent of the Japanese public wants the Olympics to be canceled or postponed again. He fears bringing tens of thousands of athletes and others to Japan, which has controlled the coronavirus better than most countries.
There is also opposition to rising costs.
The official cost is $ 15.4 billion, although several government audits say the price is at least $ 25 billion, the most expensive summer Olympics on record, according to a study from Oxford University.
The appointment of a woman could be a breakthrough for gender equality in Japan, where women are underrepresented in council chambers and politics. Japan ranks 121st out of 153 countries in the annual ranking of the World Economic Forum on Gender Equality.
Mori, before resigning, tried to offer the job last week to 84-year-old Saburo Kawabuchi, former head of the country’s football federation. But reports of the closed-door deal have been widely criticized by social media, Japanese talk shows and newspaper reports.
Kawabuchi quickly withdrew for other reasons.
Hashimoto is not without criticism. In 2014, a Japanese magazine took photos of her kissing skater Daisuke Takahashi at a party during the Sochi Olympics, suggesting it was sexual harassment or harassment of power. She later apologized, and Takahashi said he did not feel harassed.
“About my reckless actions, I am sorry for an action I took seven years ago,” she said when asked about it on Thursday. “Back then, as well as today, I still reflect on myself and what I did – and how it evolved.”
Two other former Olympians were also reported to have competed for Mori’s position: Yasuhiro Yamashita, chairman of the Japanese Olympic Committee who won gold in judo in 1984, and Mikako Kotani, who won two bronze medals in synchronized swimming. the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Kotani is the sports director of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee. The committee is chaired by men, who make up 80% of the executive board.
Japan began launching vaccines on Wednesday, a critical move that could boost the Olympics. It is a few months ago for the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries.
Large-scale vaccination is unlikely in Japan when the Olympics open on July 23 with 11,000 athletes, followed by the Paralympics on August 24 with 4,400 athletes. The plan is to keep the athletes in a “bubble” at the Village of Athletes, in places and in training areas. The CIO said it would not require vaccination of “participants”, but encouraged it.
In addition to athletes, tens of thousands of officials, media, sponsors and broadcasters will have to enter Japan. Many of them will operate outside the “balloon” in a television-led Olympics and the billions the IOC receives from the sale of broadcasting rights.
The first challenge for Hashimoto could be removing the torch relay, which begins on March 25 in northeastern Japan. It will cross the country with about 10,000 runners and will end at the opening ceremony in Tokyo.
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