THE KEY PLAYERS
IOC President Thomas Bach
Since his election in 2013 at the same session where Tokyo was chosen to host, Bach has driven the IOC through reforms in bidding and hosting the Olympics. Despite that, the German lawyer has had to navigate issues with each of the Games during his tenure – a massive $51 billion budget for Sochi in 2014 and later revelations that Russia subverted anti-doping measures there; Zika virus and a city struggling to put on the Games in Rio four years ago; and nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula before Pyeongchang in 2018. Tokyo was set to change the tide, even with cost overruns, before the pandemic. A West German fencer, Bach, 66, lost his opportunity to defend his team Olympic gold medal as his country boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow. That experience contributed to the IOC’s lengthy process on deciding the fate of the Tokyo Games. In a letter to the athletes, he wrote, “Quite frankly, I would have preferred it if the decision-makers then would have taken more time to decide on a more sound basis of information.”
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
The nation’s longest-serving prime minister has staked Japanese national pride on the event, which he helped secure with a speech at the session in 2013 where the IOC selected Tokyo as hosts. He boasted then that "The joy was even greater than when I won my own election.” Since then, the Games have generated headlines for running over its initial $6 billion budget. Officially they are $12.6 billion, but a national audit finds them to be more than double that. The Games were Abe’s chance to project soft power in the world and show its reemergence after the 2011 tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster. He dressed as Super Mario at the Rio Olympics closing ceremony, which ushered in the new hosts.
Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori
The former prime minister took over the Tokyo organizing committee in January 2014 after declining initial requests to do so because of his advanced age. Mori, now 82, called it his “last act of (public) service,” the Japan Times reported. Mori is a former president of the Japan Football Rugby Union. As head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, he has overseen cost-related concerns as he has faced health battles in recent years. Notably, Mori quickly attempted to deflect criticism when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pulled the plug on a new National Stadium designed by British architect Zaha Hadid with costs nearing $2 billion.
Mori previously had surgery for lung cancer while leading the bid and has been undergoing treatment for an undisclosed illness, the Associated Press reported.
USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland
Hirshland took over at the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2018 amid the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal that saw several executives lose their jobs over their handling of complaints about the former Michigan State doctor now convicted in state and federal court.
In her nearly two years on the job, Hirshland has been tasked with helping the committee recover from the scandal as it faces litigation from hundreds of survivors. In addition to renaming the organization the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, Hirshland has overseen audits of the national governing bodies for each sport and pushed for governance changes for some.
As late as Friday, Hirshland said the USOPC would not take a position on whether the IOC should postpone the Games amid the pandemic. It did so on Monday after hearing from more than 1,700 athletes in a survey, becoming the most influential National Olympic Committee to call for postponement.