What if the Olympic Games were held simultaneously in cities located on each of the five continents? This is the idea of Japanese Morinari Watanabe, one of the seven candidates to succeed Thomas Bach as president of the IOC (International Olympic Committee).
“Whether it will be carried out or not is not that important: we need to open the conversation, propose new ideas”, defended Watanabe, who has directed the FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) since 2017.
At 65 years old, an age that would allow him to complete a first term of eight years, but not aspire to re-election as head of the Olympic body, the Japanese leaves with the status of “outsider” in the electoral race, which will be decided from March 18 to 21 at Greece, at the 144th session of the IOC.
His opponents will be other presidents of international federations: the Frenchman David Lappartient (cycling), the British Sebastian Coe (athletics) and the Swedish-British Johann Eliasch (skiing).
Watanabe will also have as rivals in the election three members of the powerful IOC Executive Commission: Jordanian prince Faisal Al Hussein, Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. (son of the one who presided over the IOC between 1980 and 2001) and former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry , two-time Olympic champion and seven-time Games medalist.
The Japanese has the most radical program of the seven candidates, with this eye-catching proposal as its emblem: the organization of the Olympic Games in five cities on five continents at the same time, with ten sports distributed in each one, and an uninterrupted broadcast, 24 hours a day. per day during the event.
“I present a crazy idea for the first time, but I believe that young people have even more ideas. My job is to open the door,” he said.
For him, the organization of the Olympic Games in a single venue, a principle maintained since the first Games of the modern era in 1896, has become something “asphyxiating” and inaccessible for many places interested in the event, at the same time as it causes a disconnection with part of the public.
“Most people liked the Paris Games, but for those who saw them in Asia, they gave the impression of being very far away,” he argued. “I don’t believe they generated the feeling of unity that would have been necessary.”
For Watanabe, a geographical expansion of the Games will allow for “better conditions for the athletes”, adapting their disciplines to the best weather conditions, “so that they don’t have to compete very early in the morning or very late at night”, as happens on some occasions for avoid the hottest hours.
The Japanese leader estimates that a format like this would also multiply the number of potential sponsors.
To compensate for the absence of an Olympic Village that would bring together all the competitors, he imagined an “Olympic forum under one roof” to be held after each edition of the Games, to safeguard this experience so beloved by athletes.
Regarding IOC governance, he promised a “more open” direction.
Watanabe, the son of a Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor, studied physical education in Tokyo and Bulgaria before becoming director of the sports division of Japanese distribution giant Aeon.
He was also a gymnastics coach and became president of the Japanese gymnastics federation and later of the international federation.
His experience in these positions, which allowed him to travel to “more than 160 countries”, taught him, as he highlights, to “get to know people, understand them and talk to them”.
The IOC has never been led by an Asian person.
