Olympics
BARCA’S LEAD SPONSORS’ RAKUTEN’S CHIEF DESCRIBES TOKYO 2020 AS A “SUICIDE MISSION”
Rakuten chief executive Hiroshi Mikitani has described staging this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo as a “suicide mission” and urged organisers to cancel the event.
Rakuten Group, Inc., stylized as “Rakuten”, is a Japanese electronic commerce and online retailing company based in Tokyo, and are sponsors of FC Barcelona.
The head of the Japanese online retailer claims the “risk is too big” to host the Games during the coronavirus pandemic which continues to cause havoc in countries across the world.
A petition calling for the cancellation of Tokyo 2020 gained 350,000 signatures in just nine days, mounting further pressure on organisers to pull the plug on the Games.
Coronavirus cases continue to rise in Tokyo which remains in a state of emergency, while Japan has vaccinated just three per cent of its population.
Mikitani, the billionaire businessman who founded Rakuten in 1997, says he is mystified why the Japanese Government is pushing ahead with plans to host the Games this year.
“I have been very straightforward about this issue,” Mikitani told CNN.
“The fact that we are so late for the vaccinations, it’s really dangerous to host the big international event.
“The risk is too big and I am against having the Tokyo Olympics.
“I call it a suicide mission to be honest.
“I am trying to convince them [the Japanese Government] but no success so far.”
Mikitani said “everything is possible” when asked whether the Games could be cancelled with fewer than three months to go.
The Olympic Opening Ceremony is scheduled for July 23.
“I probably talk with many Government officials from other countries and many people are not really supportive of hosting the Tokyo Olympic this year,” said Mikitani.
Mikitani said his biggest concern was the potential emergence of new coronavirus variants coming into Japan.
“There are so many variants around the world,” said Mikitani.
“Some of them we know, some of them we might not know and then we are going to mix up all these people from over 100 countries [in Tokyo].”
A series of measures are set to be put in place at Tokyo 2020 in a bid to mitigate the risk of COVID-19.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe recently expressed confidence that the Games can be held safely after claiming participants will be “hermetically sealed from local people”.
Coe travelled to Tokyo for the Ready Steady Go athletics test event at the National Stadium, which involved 420 competitors including nine foreign athletes.
But Mikitani insisted it was “not a time to celebrate” due to the global health crisis.
“I think it’s difficult,” said Mikitani.
“I think they should just cancel.”
Mikitani also revealed several other business leaders in Japan had expressed their concerns to him over Tokyo 2020 taking place.
“When I talk with them privately, they agree with me, but I think there is a social and political pressure to not raise their voice,” added Mikitani to CNN.
High-profile Japanese athletes like Masters golf champion Hideki Matsuyama and women’s tennis star Naomi Osaka have expressed concern over the Olympics going ahead during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sapporo, host of the marathon and race walk events at Tokyo 2020, has recently been brought into an expanded state of emergency in Japan.
The Japanese Government has extended the current state of emergency, which means tighter COVID-19 restrictions, to include the Hokkaido, Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures.
The three regions join Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Aichi and Fukuoka in being placed under tougher measures, scheduled to be in place until May 31.
More than 11,000 people have died from coronavirus in Japan since the pandemic began last year.
Roy Jones Jr has been handed the Olympic gold medal he was controversially denied in 1988 in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship by the South Korean fighter who beat him.
Hall of Fame boxer Jones shared a video on Wednesday from two years ago that showed Park Si-hun visiting the American’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida to present him with the light middleweight gold medal.
“I had the gold medal, but I want to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said in the video through his son, who translated.
Jones, who was overcome with emotion by the gesture, covered his face with his hand before saying: “Wow, that is crazy.”
Their match at the Seoul Olympics remains one of boxing’s most contentious moments as Jones appeared to dominate the fight but lost to Park by a 3-2 decision that drew instant criticism and sparked enduring controversy.
Despite losing the gold medal match, Jones was selected as the Val Barker Trophy winner as the best boxer of the 1988 Olympics.
Jones went on to become a four-division world champion and is regarded as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
“In 1988, I was robbed of the gold medal in what became one of the biggest controversies in boxing history,” Jones wrote in his Instagram post.
“By the grace of God, a couple of years ago, the man who won that medal made the trip from South Korea to my home to return it to me, feeling it was rightfully mine.
“I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did.”
-Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday creating a White House Olympics task force to handle security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, an administration official told Reuters.
The task force, made up of members from Trump’s cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will “streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media,” the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the World Cup.
“During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule . The city had also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
“The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,” Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
–Reuters
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By DAVID LEE
Home is many places for swimmer Adaku Nwandu, who was born in China, lives in Singapore and wears the Nigeria flag on her swimsuit.
And it is at her current home in Singapore that the 17-year-old is making her debut at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
In the second heat of the 100m freestyle at the WCH Arena, the teenager, who has a Nigerian father and Chinese mother, led at the turn before finishing third in 1min 0.89sec – she eventually placed 59th out of 82 athletes overall.
After her race, Adaku shared with The Straits Times that she was born and raised in Shanghai, and started swimming when she was eight. Interestingly, it was ice cream that kept her in the sport.
Adaku, who still has the 50m freestyle heats on Aug 2, said: “At a school competition, I didn’t do so well and I asked my dad if we could make a deal. He said if I do better, he would buy me ice cream once every week, and that’s a promise we have kept with each other. And that’s what brought me here.”
In 2023, the family moved to Singapore due to her mother’s work posting. With her fluent Mandarin and love for Asian and spicy food, it did not take long for her to pick up Singlish and enjoy local delights like chicken rice and chilli crab.
She said: “We came here mainly because of my mother’s work, and also because the swimming scene back where I lived in China was a little bit toxic, so she also thought Singapore would be a new experience and better for my swimming.”
By then, she had already committed to representing Nigeria after its aquatics association contacted her after the National Sports Festival in Asaba, where the then 16-year-old was part of the national record-breaking women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
But Singapore is where she has been honing her swimming skills, as she has set her 50m and 100m freestyle long- and short-course Nigeria national records at meets here.
Noting her improvements, Singapore swimming coach and performance director Gary Tan said: “Adaku has been participating in our system for a while, and we hope it helps her develop as a swimmer and achieve what she wants while training in Singapore with her school (German European School Singapore).”
For someone who is inspired by Olympic champions David Popovici, Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty for “their dedication and the way they are able to take breaks for themselves to improve and get back to the water”, qualifying for Paris 2024 on ranking points was a dream come true.
Her Olympic debut was also unforgettable as her swimsuit ripped 20 minutes before her 50m freestyle heat, but she managed to finish second in her heat and 33rd out of 78th overall in 26.62 seconds, just 0.03 of a second off her personal best.
Back in Singapore, Adaku, who is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme at her school, realised that she needed more of such resilience to reach her goals.
The swimmer, who also plays for the school’s volleyball team, said: “I had a lot of improvement the first year I came to Singapore. But this past year has been especially hard for me with family problems and also school. The workload in my first year of IB made it hard to balance training and school.
“Especially in the next year, I want to focus more on swimming and try to get some new personal bests because this year I just plateaued. I’m looking forward to training harder and preparing for my next competition and hopefully qualify for the next Olympics.”
-Strait Times, Singapore
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