Power harassment of Olympic wrestling champ Icho recognized

April 7, 2018

Tokyo- The head of the Japan Wrestling Federation's training headquarters has abused his power against four-time Olympic gold medalist Kaori Icho, the federation said Friday, releasing the results of an investigation by a third-party panel.

The panel, made up of three lawyers, concluded that Kazuhito Sakae, the training chief, harassed Icho partly by using abusive languages against her, according to the federation.

Sakae was a former coach of the female wrestler, who at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games became the first woman to capture gold medals in four straight Olympics in any individual event.

Sakae resigned from the post of training chief on Friday to take the blame for the harassment.

The panel examined Sakae's remarks and behavior in the period after the 2008 Beijing Olympics and until last month, and recognized four cases of such power harassment.

In one of the four cases, Sakae told Icho during a training camp in February 2010, "How dare you do wrestling in front of me," according to the panel. Icho left the mentorship of Sakae after the Beijing Games.

In another of the recognized cases, Sakae in September 2010 told Chikara Tanabe, a coach for the men's national wrestling team, not to train Icho.

The panel was set up last month after it came to light that a complaint of the alleged abuse of power against Icho was submitted to the Cabinet Office's Public Interest Commission in January this year.

As part of measures to prevent similar harassment, the federation at Friday's extraordinary board meeting decided to introduce a whistleblower system and thoroughly conduct ethics training, based on recommendations from the panel.

The federation plans to decide whether Sakae will resign as a member of the board after the Cabinet Office finishes its investigation. Jiji Press