Japan athletics chief fights back tears over memory of Covid-hit Olympics

The head of Japanese athletics fought back tears Friday as she described how the world championships in Tokyo can “wipe away” the painful memory of empty stands at the Olympics four years ago.

The Tokyo Games were delayed a year to 2021 because of the pandemic and held in strict conditions to prevent the spread of Covid, with fans shut out of most venues and athletes forced to undergo tests and social distancing.

The world championships will have no such restrictions when they start on Saturday and tens of thousands of fans are expected to flock to Tokyo’s National Stadium, which seats almost 70,000.

Japan Association of Athletics Federations president Yuko Arimori said she hoped the competition would remind people of the value of sport.

“Sport isn’t just about the athletes but about everyone getting energy from it and lifting each other up, and I think that kind of energy is important,” she said.

“I think this event will help us wipe away the emotions we felt back then and remind us what sport should be like.

“Athletics is the mother of sports and I want people to take inspiration from it.”

Arimori, a former marathon runner who won silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and bronze in Atlanta four years later, became emotional as she considered the competition’s meaning.

“I’m so happy that the world’s media, top athletes from around the globe and kids and fans from all over Japan will come to this stadium to support athletics and give us their energy,” said Arimori.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said sport had “a unique ability” to bring people together.

“It’s the most potent social worker in all our communities,” he said.

“It does it most effectively, probably more effectively than any other sector.

“It has the ability to touch the hearts and minds and lifestyles of young people in the way very few other sectors do.”