Tokyo will host the Olympics and Paralympics in 2020 after seeing off rivals Madrid and Istanbul in dramatic circumstances to win the vote. It will be the second time the Japanese capital has hosted the Games having previously done so in 1964.[more]
The vote by the International Olympic Committee meeting in Buenos Aires saw Tokyo win the first round of voting with Istanbul and Madrid polling the same number of votes.
A tie-break saw Madrid eliminated by four votes to set up a final round between Istanbul and Tokyo with the Japanese city emerging triumphant.
Tokyo won by 60 votes to 36 in the final round of voting – a comprehensive victory which came despite some IOC members expressing concern over leaks at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which is 150 miles from the capital.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tackled the issue head-on in Tokyo’s final presentation, promising the IOC: ‘I shall take the responsibility to implement programmes to render this situation completely problem-free and I say that most emphatically and unequivocally.’
Tokyo’s cause was helped in no small way by the presence of Cambridge-educated Princess Hisako of Takamado, and a bravura performance in its final presentation by Paralympic athlete Mima Sato.
Hisako, the first member of the Japanese Imperial family to have ever addressed the IOC, delivered Tokyo’s opening speech of the presentation and pushed all the right buttons.
Sato, who lost a leg following bone cancer and competed in the long jump at the London 2012 Paralympics, said: ‘What we have seen is the impact of the Olympic values as never before in Japan. And what the country has witnessed is that those precious values – excellence, friendship and respect – can be so much more than just words.’
For Istanbul, bidding for the fifth time, there was bitter disappointment yet again.
The Turkish city had been the frontrunner for so long but suffered a series of damaging blows later in the campaign: the protests in Taksim Square in June – a proposed Games venue – a major doping scandal, the jailing of political opponents and journalists last month and the rising threat of war in next-door Syria.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan tried to address the issue, telling IOC members: ‘We live at a time when our region and the world crave for peace.
‘And at this critical moment, we would like to send a strong message of peace to the whole world from Istanbul, the city of friendship and brotherhood.’
Madrid had had high hopes for their royal trump card in the form of Crown Prince Felipe, a former Olympic sailor, but even his contribution could not convince enough IOC voters.
The Spanish city’s main message had been staging a low-cost Games in a country which is struggling with its economy, and Felipe told members: ‘Some people around the world have questioned hosting the Games in a time of economic uncertainty.
‘But I don’t see this as a threat to the Olympics, I see it as an opportunity. The benefits of sport are measured in generations, not in dollars.’
The centre piece of the 1964 Tokyo Games is planned to become an 80,000-seater new Olympic Stadium with retractable roof. It will be prepared for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which Japan will be hosting.
