Whereas Bach was a gold medalist within the males’s fencing crew competitors on the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Watanabe by no means competed on the Olympics not to mention medaled. After becoming a member of the Jusco retail chain in 1984, he labored as a salaryman workplace employee for the Aeon Group, Jusco’s renamed dad or mum company and served as director of the Japan Gymnastic Affiliation. In 2017 he grew to become FIG’s first Asian president.
Beneath Watanabe’s management, in November, 2000 following the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics through the COVID-19 pandemic, FIG organized a four-nation “Friendship and Bonding Competitors” in Japan, inviting groups from the usA., Russia and China to compete alongside the Japanese crew which included legends like Kohei Uchimura. The occasion helped to exhibit that the Olympics might nonetheless be held in Tokyo through the pandemic.
One gymnastics official described Watanabe. “He likes to say, ‘I am a salaryman.’ He is a specialist in sports activities enterprise, organizing competitions and organizing lessons to popularize rhythmic gymnastics. He is superb at getting together with individuals, and he apparently is in common contact with Bach on the cellphone. I’ve heard that when he was approached about IOC membership he scored a spot in Bach’s coronary heart by answering, ‘I will say sure if there’s work to be executed, however I do not need the celebrity.’ He has a fame as being shrewd, however some individuals say he’s simply overtly kissing Bach’s ass.”
The deadline for nominations for the IOC presidential election is mid-September. One in all Watanabe’s main promoting factors is his “cleanliness” and “equity,” citing the group of the Gymnastics Ethics Basis, a third-party group dealing with athlete disciplinary procedures. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, 67, is taken into account the main candidate to exchange Bach, however with the IOC consistently within the midst of allegations of illicit cash and corruption, it will be nice Watanabe make a mark by proposing reforms to wash it up.
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translated by Brett Larner
