Tokyo to bid for 2020 Summer Olympics
Tokyo has announced its decision to bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games on July 16 at a press conference. The decision has been made in order to help the city come out of the economic crisis that befell it after the tsunami caused by the earthquake hit
the region.
A special meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) was held shortly before the bidding decision was made public. According to Tsunekazu Takeda, the president of the JOC, his executive committee decided on the matter of making the bid for the 2020
Olympics.
This is not the first time that Tokyo will be making a bid for the Olympic Games and it has already played host to the Olympic Games back in 1964. The second time that the city tried its luck was for the 2016 Olympic Games. This happened in the year 2009,
when Tokyo lost to Rio de Janeiro. The other two competitors for hosting the 2016 Games were Madrid, Spain and Chicago.
Takeda made the following statements at the 100th anniversary of the JOC, “Japan must recover from the great earthquake disaster. We wish to make the 2020 Olympics a symbol of our recovery. There is no meaning in fighting a battle that is the
Olympic bidding if we don't win it. Tokyo won't mind fighting a bloody battle in building facilities. I want the JOC to win a bloody battle (in leading the bid) no matter what."
The city of Tokyo had kept aside 400 billion yen in order to prepare for the Olympic bid. This money will be used for the construction of venues as well as infrastructure if the city succeeds.
Apart from Tokyo, the two other cities that have officially made their bidding intentions clear are Rome as well as Madrid. Turkey’s Istanbul and Qatar’s Doha are still not sure whether they will be making the bid or not. The deadline for submission of entries
is the 1st September. However, it will not be until September 2013 that the host of the 2020 Olympic Games will be selected. The venue for the selection process is scheduled to be Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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