The heritage venues of the 1964 Olympics would still play a prominent role in the 2016 plan for the Games. (ATR)Old and New Tokyo for 2016 Olympics Bid
Organizers of the Tokyo bid for the 2016 Games say they believe their plan will be the most compact of the bids that will be filed by the IOC deadline for submissions next month.
Using existing venues from the 1964 Olympics and a collection of new venues, the Tokyo plan proposes to keep nearly all within a 10km radius of the Olympic Village to be built in east Tokyo, near the waterfront.
“It’s a combination of Olympic heritage and Olympic innovation,” says bid chief executive Ichiro Kono in an interview with Around the Rings at bid headquarters at Tokyo city hall.
Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda says Tokyo 2016 will bring renewal for those 50-year-old venues - “then we will build new venues for the next 50 years, a legacy for the next generation.”
New construction for the Games would take place in the Tokyo Bay area, one of the few places where there is room for new construction. An Olympic Village and stadium would be the signature projects making up the center of the Games.
A tour on a weekend day by car of some of the proposed went smoothly, without much hassle from traffic jams. Organizers say this would be indicative of travel times under Olympic traffic rules.
(A photo gallery of the Tokyo venue tour is now on-line here.)
Near the center of Tokyo, venues from 1964 are still used. The 1964 stadium was being outfitted for a J-league football match that night. The well-maintained stadium barely hints that it was first used as the center of the Tokyo Olympics. The cauldron still stands at one side of the arena.
Nearby are Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium and the Nippon Budokan, two 1964 arenas that will return to Olympic use if Tokyo is successful for 2016. Budokan hosted judo in 1964 and would again in 2016. While used continuously for martial arts events, Budokan is a popular entertainment venue where the Beatles and other top acts have performed.
Yoyogi National Gymnasium, the swimming venue for 1964, is now an arena for basketball and would host the sport in 2016.
In the middle of the Ginza district, the glass-walled Tokyo International Forum is one of the ultra-modern venues that is ready for 2016 Olympics duty. The exhibition center would host wrestling as well as the The site planned for the Olympic Village in east Tokyo, looking towards the city.IOC Session preceding the 2016 Games. Nearby, the Imperial Hotel would serve as IOC headquarters.
Moving east towards Tokyo Bay, the Tsukiji Fish Market will make way for the construction of a new office and hotel center that will be used as broadcast and press center for the Games. The legendary fish market is supposed to relocate about 2km east by 2012.
The Olympic Village and the Olympic Stadium are in the next band of venues on the waterfront, both empty expanses of land already owned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. With the TMG already holding the rights to nearly every piece of land needed for construction, organizers say they can keep costs down.
All the construction needed for Tokyo will take place on this city land near Tokyo Bay. Along with big projects Tsukiji Fish Market is supposed to move by 2012, making room for the press and broadcast center for the 2016 Tokyo bid. (ATR)such as the stadium and village, land will be needed for temporary aquatics venues and beach volleyball and new venues for equestrian, shooting, rowing and BMX cycling.
Rowing, which would be located in what is now a ship channel surrounded by industrial neighbors, would seem to be one of the venues most in need of fine-tuning for aesthetics and field-of-play quality.
Also under review by Tokyo bid planners is the marina for sailing, now about 30 km from the Olympic Village. They want to bring the sailing center closer.
Kono notes that the venue plan for Tokyo 2016 is one that was created almost two years ago when the city was competing against Fukuoka in western Japan for the nomination of the JOC for 2016.
“There are some changes coming, possibly,” he says.
“We would like to consult with the IOC, with the international sports federations. We need some advice from them,” he says.
But the venues must be at their best, counsels senior IOC member in Japan Chiharu Igaya. He most recently led the IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2014 Winter Olympics, a race won by Sochi, Russia. And he’s served on other evaluation commissions for the IOC as well.
“All the venues must be at their best because they are competing against the very best from around the world. And besides, Olympic Games are for the athletes and we cannot distinguish between certain sports. All the venues must be the best,” says Igaya.
Tokyo will be one of at least five or six cities in the running for the 2016 Games. The IOC has set a deadline of September 13 for cities to make application. Tokyo is the only one so far to file, but Chicago, Doha, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are expected to make the deadline.
After the cities submit an initial dossier to the IOC in January 2008, the IOC Executive Board will select a group of finalists in early June 2008 to present formal bids. The election for the 2016 host takes place in October 2009.
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