The gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals were unveiled for public viewing on Wednesday in Tokyo, marking exactly a year until the 2020 Games.
The medals were unveiled during the One Year to Go Olympic ceremony in Tokyo. The opening ceremony is on July 24, 2020.
Tokyo is spending about USD 20 billion to prepare the Japanese capital to host the 2020 Olympics. A report by AP says that five of the eight new venues are finished and the centrepiece, the USD 1.25 billion National Stadium, will open by the end of 2019.
However, the question of spending billions on the Olympics has been raised by many. Under pressure to cut costs, organisers clarified that billions have already been cut 35 older venues.
Several anti-Olympics activists have protested spending so much on the Olympics, with demonstration under the title “Hangorin no Kai” which roughly translates to “No Olympics”. They said the spending cuts into budgets for local housing and environmental issues. They also call for more money to rebuild Fukushima prefecture located northeast of Tokyo.
John Coates, who heads the IOC inspection team for Tokyo said that there is an unprecedented level of interest in ticket sales. The demand for tickets by Japanese residents is said to be at least 10 times above supply. There is also a surge in demand for tickets outside Japan.
Yoshiro Mori, the president of the organising committee, confirmed that Japanese Emperor Naruhito will take on the role of “honorary patron” of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The Paralympics will open on August 20, 2020.
The 2020 Games will showcase four new sports―karate, skateboarding, sports climbing, and surfing. Also returning to the Olympics are baseball and softball.
IOC President Thomas Bach has called Tokyo preparations as “the best” in history.
The preparation for 2020 Olympics , however, has faced a few controversies.
Tsunekazu Takeda, the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee, was forced to quit earlier this year when he was implicated in a vote-buying scheme to land the games. He acknowledged signing off on about USD 2 million that French investigators allege went to buy votes of some IOC members.
The organisers had to redesign their logo after they were called out on charges of plagiarism. An international labour union also alleged work-safety violations at Olympic venues.
Japanese architect Kengo Kuma took over the designing of the new stadium after costs for the design created by late-British architect Zaha Hadid went past USD 2 billion.
(With inputs from agencies)
