JOC chief targets well over 30 gold medals in Tokyo Olympics

January 30, 2020

Tokyo--Japanese Olympic Committee President Yasuhiro Yamashita pledged Thursday that the country aims to earn far more gold medals than the committee's goal of 30 in the Tokyo Olympics this summer.

"We'll work hard to win many more gold medals than the goal of 30," Yamashita said in a lecture meeting sponsored by the Research Institute of Japan, a Jiji Press affiliate, in Tokyo. "It's possible for Japanese athletes to win more than 30 golds if they display their strengths on the back of support from many members of the public."

Yamashita, the gold medalist in the men's judo open category in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, said the committee is working with organizations representing each sport in an unprecedentedly close and effective way in strengthening Japanese athletes.

"The momentum is now being built for the committee to work in unity with the related organizations for successfully holding the Olympics," he said. While noting that Japan's national team for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, held in Japan, "fought under the slogan of 'One Team,'" Yamashita said, "We're working as 'Team Japan,'" for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

He said that the JOC plans to create opportunities for Japanese Olympians and Paralympians who give outstanding performances in the 2020 Games to visit areas affected by disasters, including the March 2011 powerful earthquake and tsunami, and encourage affected people.

On Wednesday, the JOC approved Sapporo, the capital of the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, as the country's candidate city to host the 2030 Winter Olympics. The city will host marathon and walk race events for the 2020 Olympics on behalf of Tokyo, where scorching summer heat is expected during the Olympics.

Yamashita, who became a member of the International Olympic Committee earlier this month, said he has received many opinions from within the IOC that Sapporo deserves to be the host of the 2030 Games."Sapporo has a good chance of winning the race," he said.

Yamashita said that preparations for winning the bid should be launched early because the IOC has scrapped its rules of choosing a host city seven years before each games in principle. Jiji Press