No.59 From Rio to Tokyo! The Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games are finally starting

Mario jumped into a clay pipe at the Shibuya intersection with a red ball, warped all at once and arrived halfway around the world in Brazil, and the person who suddenly stood up from the clay pipe that appeared in the center of the stadium was none other than Prime Minister Abe!
After the Olympic flag was handed over by the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro to the IOC President and then to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, the 12-minute show introducing the next Olympic host city was a unique content that brought Japanese anime culture to the fore, and was popular with overseas media. It received high praise from
This year, the 31st Summer Olympic Games were held in Rio de Janeiro for the first time in South America, and concluded on August 21, 2016 after 17 days of intense competition.
Japan won a record 41 medals, exceeding the 38 they won at the previous London Games, ranking 6th in the world in the number of gold medals and 7th in total.
There is meaning in participating, and we shouldn't get too attached to the number of medals, but seeing the results far exceed the initial goal of 30 or more makes me more excited for the next 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
It is concerning that the number of events in which medals were won this time has decreased from 13 to 10 last time, but the JOC is aiming for the third highest number of gold medals in the world at the next Tokyo Games, and we are working hard to make that dream come true. I would like to support you.
Highlights at this year's tournament included gymnastics athlete Kohei Uchimura's second consecutive individual all-around victory, female wrestler Kaoru Icho's fourth consecutive victory, male swimmer Kosuke Hagino's 400m individual medley, and female swimmer Rie Kaneto's 200m breaststroke. However, there was also good news such as the return of men's and women's judo, and the first gold medal for women's badminton by the Takamatsu pair.
Additionally, the fact that we were able to win medals in events that had previously been difficult to rank in, such as men's and women's table tennis and men's short distance track and field, gave us great hope for the next event.
By the way, I think three issues were raised at this conference. These are cost control, security measures, and doping issues.
The cost of hosting the event, which is the sum of stadium maintenance costs and operating costs, tends to increase each time, and while the London Games cost approximately 1.5 trillion yen, Rio's cost was one-third, or approximately 460 billion yen. that's right. Although there are some aspects that are difficult to imitate in Japan, such as temporary stands with exposed single pipes, efforts can be made now to reduce costs and make effective use of them after the Games.
As for security measures, 85,000 security personnel were deployed, more than double the number for the London Games, and there were no major disruptions that had been feared. I think Japan has an advantage in terms of security, but being careless is the enemy.
The doping problem is a deep-rooted problem that has never been resolved. Japan has never had a violator in the Olympics so far. Since our country is pure and clean, I think this would be a good opportunity to advocate anti-doping to the world. I believe that doping, which involves sacrificing one's body in order to achieve temporary results, is contrary to the idea of ​​athletes first.
I am writing this article while the Paralympics are being held, but since there has been so much free time since the Olympics ended, I feel that there has been little media coverage. We look forward to further integration of the two tournaments at the next Tokyo Games.