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Japan Olympic chief calls for urgent change for games to save event
The Tokyo Olympics should become an opportunity to rethink the enormous scale and expense of the world’s largest sporting events, the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee says.
The gold medalist spoke just three and a half weeks ahead of the opening ceremony for Tokyo 2020.
The decision in March last year to delay the games by a year due to the pandemic added billions of dollars to the cost of staging the event.
“This could be a chance to rethink how huge the Olympics have become,”
Yamashita told reporters in Tokyo
Audits by the Japanese government over the past few years have shown the costs will come to at least $25 billion.
“Rather than being extravagant and costly, the Olympics will need to change to survive. I hope this will be a turning point.”
Japan though claims they have been cuts to spending including by abandoning a futuristic design for the main stadium that was alone expected to cost $2 billion.