Tokyo 2020: Decision on overseas spectators to be taken this month amid Japanese concern over increased Covid-19 risk March 8, 2021 Olympics chiefs will decide this month whether to ban overseas spectators from this summer’s delayed Tokyo 2020 Games. The Olympics and Paralympics are set to go ahead despite continued concern at the Covid-19 situation in Japan, which extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and neighbouring prefectures on Friday. Around 15,000 athletes and other personnel [...]
Week in Sportbiz: England Netball weighing up approaches from private investors; plus Manchester City’s humble new partner club and ‘super spikes’ February 18, 2021 Netball’s prodigious growth has not gone unnoticed by the private investors who have embarked on a trolley dash of sporting properties. England Netball successfully launched its Covid-adapted 2021 Superleague season last weekend – another feather in the cap of an organisation that has doubled participation in a decade. The governing has renewed its broadcast deal [...]
Japan calms sexism storm by naming Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto as Tokyo 2020 Games president February 18, 2021 Japan’s Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto has been appointed to succeed Yoshiro Mori as president of the Tokyo 2020 Games. The replacement of Mori, an 83-year-old man who resigned over sexist comments, with Hashimoto, a 56-year-old woman, is a significant one for a country criticised for its overwhelmingly male boardrooms. Hashimoto is a former Olympic athlete [...]
Tokyo 2020 chief quits after sexist remarks towards women February 12, 2021 Yoshiro Mori, chief of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, resigned on Friday over sexist remarks that sparked a global outcry. The former Japanese prime minister received a backlash when he said during an Olympic committee meeting earlier this month that ‘women talk too much’. Mori’s resignation comes months before the postponed games are scheduled to begin, [...]
How Tokyo plans to stage a safe Olympics this year – and why cancellation remains the last resort February 12, 2021 In spite of the relatively upbeat mood music emanating from the corridors of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), nagging questions about whether the Games can be safely staged this summer have persisted. But the organisers of the world’s largest sporting event have now given the world the first concrete indications of how they propose to [...]
Tokyo 2020 Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori set to quit in sexism storm just months before Games February 11, 2021 Yoshiro Mori, the president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics organising committee, is expected to quit over a sexism row. Mori, 83, has faced widespread calls to resign since saying that women talk too much earlier this month. The former prime minster of Japan is set to step down at a board meeting tomorrow, local media [...]
Alistair Brownlee interview: Olympic triathlon champion targeting world’s first sub-seven-hour Ironman and golden hat-trick in Tokyo February 5, 2021 Alistair Brownlee did his first triathlon aged eight and trains three times a day, almost every day. Friday is “easy day”, when he swims and works out in the gym. When he’s not training, he enjoys riding his mountain bike. “I don’t like sitting still,” he says. The reigning Olympic triathlon champion will harness that [...]
Tokyo 2020 Olympics will happen this year regardless of Covid-19, organisers insist February 2, 2021 The delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics will definitely go ahead this summer whatever the impact of Covid-19, organisers have said. Cases in Japan remain far higher than last year, increasing fears that the Games may have to be cancelled altogether. But Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori said: “We will hold the Olympics, regardless of how the [...]
Olympic chiefs expected to press ahead and draw up plans for Tokyo 2020 Games in summer 2021 despite Covid-19 concerns January 26, 2021 The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will meet tomorrow to draw up plans for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, despite persistent speculation of a Covid-enforced cancellation. Wednesday’s video meeting of the IOC’s executive board is expected to focus on how it will ensure the vaccination of athletes, manage international visitors and accommodate spectators. The Japanese government, [...]
Tokyo Olympics unlikely to happen, says London 2012 chief Sir Keith Mills January 19, 2021 The Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games are “unlikely” to go ahead this year, says one of the architects of London 2012. Sir Keith Mills, creator of the Air Miles and Nectar loyalty schemes, was chief executive of London’s bid for the Games and deputy chair of the organising committee. He told the BBC: “Personally, sitting [...]