KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games organising committee has swung sharply back on track after appointing Seko Hashimoto as president in place of Yoshiro Mori who quit amid a storm over his sexist remarks about women.
The 56-year-old former Games competitor was an obvious choice from her work as the Japanese government’s Minister for Olympics and Paralympics.
Hashimoto had competed in seven summer and winter Olympics between 1984 and 1996 as both a track cyclist and speed skater. She won bronze in 1992 in Albertville. Her father gave her the name Seiko after the Olympic flame inspired by the Tokyo Games that year.
Her appointment was welcomed by the International Olympic Committee.
An IOC statement said: “With the appointment of a woman as president, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee is also sending a very important signal with regard to gender equality, which is one of the topics we addressed in Olympic Agenda 2020, the reform programme for the IOC and the Olympic movement.”
Hashimoto, on her appointment, told her organising committee colleagues about the priority of providing reassurance at both home and abroad of Japan’s ability to deliver a “safe and secure” Games.