Probe of IOC’s Takeda hangs over Tokyo Olympics

TOKYO >> A month ago, Tsunekazu Takeda was warmly applauded by

1,400 Olympic dignitaries as he spoke alongside International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach in Tokyo.

A month later, the powerful IOC member and head of the Japanese Olympic Committee is fighting a corruption investigation, suspected by French investigators of authorizing the payment of bribes to help land the

2020 Tokyo Olympics when IOC members voted in 2013.

In a Japanese Olympic Committee statement on Friday, Takeda denied any wrongdoing.

A distant relative of Japan’s royal family — the great grandson of the Meiji Emperor — Takeda could join a growing list of suspended IOC members, and honorary members, who are linked to corruption probes. His case could potentially tarnish the Tokyo Olympics, which open in 18 months.