The 56-year-old Hashimoto is fashionable, wearing three rings on her left hand, with a laurel crown and five Olympic rings, the most eye-catching of which is the colorful beads on her left wrist, in addition to the two-layered beads and a rugged silver bracelet, which she says she wears every day.
This is a serious and capable strong woman, who only smiled when the reporter praised her figure and dress, and it is impossible to imagine that she is also a legendary female official with a drunken style of "extravagant". There are many legends about her, such as athletes who can participate in rare Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics, women who train during the day and attend important meetings of Parliament at night while taking into account the status of athletes and parliamentarians, and the first female member to give birth to a child during the term of senatorial term and thus introduce the maternity leave system into Congress.
With the successful conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics, perhaps in the near future, the legend about her will be added to the female president who was appointed to successfully lead the organization of the Tokyo Olympic Games under the epidemic, but this female president is a perfectionist, "I don't rate myself high." ”
(Q=Sports Weekly A=Hashimoto Seiko)
The empty venue is right
Q: The Tokyo Olympic Games are moving forward in turmoil, and under the dual pressure of public opinion and the epidemic, what is the driving force behind the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee's resolute decision to host the Tokyo Olympic Games?
A: As an organizer, it feels particularly difficult, how to do a good job in epidemic prevention during the Olympic Games, especially with the background of the new crown, we think we must not be too gorgeous in this Olympic Games. In 2013, the bid was successful, and for 8 years we always remembered that we made a commitment to people all over the world, so it must be done. When I decided to postpone it for a year, I thought it must be a difficult Olympic Games, and whether it can be successfully held is a question. In the context of the epidemic, there have been voices of criticism and opposition from the beginning, but isn't that how life is? You are always facing all kinds of problems, and if we say that we can't do it, it is to face this subject and pass the test, which is not a correct attitude.
Q: When he succeeded Yoshiro Mori as chairman, he expressed his desire to establish a team to promote gender equality.
A: The theme of the Tokyo Olympic Games is diversity and harmony, and this Olympic Games has added a lot of mixed male and female events, and the ratio of male and female athletes is 51:49, which is the first time in history that the number of men and women is basically equal. After I took office, the number of members of the Olympic Organizing Committee was increased, and a number of female members were added, and the proportion of female directors reached 42%. Not only that, but I have set up a dedicated gender promotion team, which is responsible for advocacy and training on diversity. The Organising Committee is only a temporary body, but the significance of this work is that the current more than 8,000 employees return to their jobs after the Olympic Games, and the diversity they learn here and the values of gender equality can be promoted to more people.
Q: Many journalists and athletes regret hosting the Olympics in empty spaces, but after the Games, do you think that the decision to host the olympic games was correct, or do you regret that some people should have let some people in? That's why it was decided that the Paralympic Games would allow students to enter?
A: There are some spectators in the stadiums in Places like Shizuoka and Miyagi, and they are very happy. But the Tokyo area has a large population, the epidemic and public opinion pressure can only be empty, for this Olympic Games, safety is the first priority, so I still think this is the right decision. At the same time, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and government departments at all levels saw the success of the Olympic epidemic prevention work and recognized our epidemic prevention measures, so we made the decision to let some students in the Paralympic Games.
Q: How do you evaluate the epidemic prevention and control work at the Olympic Games?
A: There are three main bodies in our epidemic prevention work, tokyo metropolitan government, Olympic Organizing Committee, Japanese government department, Japanese government department is responsible for border inspection and quarantine, very strict, and even some athletes have reported that they have been subjected to too strict inspections that have affected the adjustment of sports status. Our bubble method strictly controls the movement route of the team members, and also ensures that they have enough training time before and after the daily test. Of course, every day of testing, the pressure of the team members is very high, so we considered how to alleviate everyone's psychological pressure in the Olympic facilities, such as the highest rated catering. As an athlete and staff member, I have eaten at 11 Olympic Village restaurants, and Tokyo is the best in general, with a wide variety of foods, including halal food, Japanese cuisine areas, and very spacious and well-equipped training rooms.
Q: But the restaurant in our media center is too monotonous and the price is still very expensive.
A: I apologize to you for this, I have heard about it, it is expensive and not delicious, and some places even use frozen food directly to heat it.
A loss of $26 billion is basically accurate
Q: Japan has invested a lot of human and material resources in the Tokyo Olympic Games, how many staff and volunteers are there in total? There are temporary employees who say their daily salary can reach 16,000 yen, which is higher than the average salary in Tokyo, is this true?
A: There are nearly 8,000 staff members, and initially volunteers recruited 80,000 people, but because there is no audience, their working hours have been shortened, and they still hope that they will all be able to participate in the Olympic Games. There is no fixed standard for salary, some are sent by local governments, some are ministries and sponsors, some are paid leave, and some receive salaries from ministries. In addition to the 80,000 people who volunteer from the venues and games, there are also city volunteers, responsible for traffic guidance, a total of nearly 200,000 people.
Q: The budget for the 2013 bid was $6 billion, and there are estimates that the Tokyo Olympics will be the most expensive Olympics, ending up costing about $26 billion?
A: $26 billion, which is basically accurate. What makes us even more nervous is that the empty venue lost almost all of the ticket revenue of 90 billion yen. Budget is a big issue, and after the Paralympic Games, we will do the accounting with government departments at all levels, sponsors, etc., brainstorm and see how to solve it.
Q: The opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympic Games has fired several directors one after another, designating Dentsu as the exclusive agency marketing business, and now it seems that this decision is correct?
A: For a large event like the Olympic Games, there must be an experienced company to lead, Dentsu cooperated with us when it was bidding, it has experience in hosting domestic and international large-scale events, and it is the largest advertising agency in Japan, which can involve other companies to cooperate, I think it is appropriate.
Athletes come first
Q: You are a relatively rare athlete who participates in both the Winter Olympics as a speed skater and the Summer Olympics as a cyclist, can you easily switch between the two, is there anything in common between speed skating and cycling?
A: The two sports postures are similar, the muscles used are highly consistent, mainly using thighs, lower back and abdominal muscles. At the beginning, I used these two sports to promote each other in training, and as I practiced, I found that I could participate in the Olympic Games.
Q: How many Olympic Games have you participated in? What was the most impressive?
A: 7 times, the most impressive one is the Sarajevo Olympics, because it is the first time to realize the dream of life, and the other is to win a medal at the Albertville Winter Olympics. The atmosphere of the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics is not the same, the Summer Olympics are like a festival, lively, and the Winter Olympics is a reunion of a big family, which feels very warm.
Q: What competitions and competitors did you follow at the Tokyo Olympics? How do you rate the performance of the Japanese team at the Tokyo Olympics?
A: I am most concerned about the new sports that entered the Olympic Games for the first time, except for baseball and softball, which appeared again after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, skateboarding, surfing, rock climbing, karate competitions have no past experience to refer to, and we have put a lot of effort into it. The goal of the Japanese Olympic Organizing Committee for this Olympic Games is 30 gold medals, which has not been completed, but there is a great improvement from the overall level compared with the previous session, indicating that our investment after the successful bid is effective.
Q: Chinese athletes chose music with historical colors in gymnastics competitions, you suggested not to replace it, why?
A: Hosting an international event like the Olympics will definitely encounter all kinds of potential problems in politics, but I have always believed that everything should be done first of all athletes, and if his behavior is obviously wrong, it must be corrected, but if it is not, if the change affects his state performance, then it cannot be done
Overall, Dongao is not a full-point event
Q: 1-10 points, if you score the work of the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, what would be the score?
A: Overall, the Tokyo Olympics are not a great event that scores a perfect score, but I want to score 10 points for the dedicated staff, many of whom work all night and give 120% of the effort. My own job may not be able to give a full evaluation until after the Paralympic Games, and now I feel that the score may not be too high, because I am a person who pursues perfection and is still far from perfection.
Q: You dress up very stylishly, wear a lot of jewelry, your figure is also maintained very well, do you exercise regularly?
A: Thank you for the praise, in fact, I am not very interested in dressing, many girls like bags, I don't like it, I think I myself am not very suitable for wearing kimonos, wearing kimonos is not beautiful. You see I wear a lot of things on my hands, in fact, every day, except for the ring that will be changed. I often go to the gym.
Q: Will you go to Beijing to watch the Winter Olympics?
A: Definitely going, we'll see you in Beijing.