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Another black eye for the Olympics

The head of Japan's Olympic Committee has been placed under formal criminal investigation in France over allegations that he paid bribes to help Tokyo win the rights to host the 2020 Summer Games.

Tsunekazu Takeda, who competed in show jumping at the 1972 and '76 Games, has been president of his country's Olympic movement since 2001. He was "mis en examen" by a Paris judge — the first step towards a French prosecution — on Dec. 10, according to a report in today's Le Monde newspaper.

Tsunekazu Takeda, head of Japan's Olympic Committee, at the international presentation of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games bid in London in 2013. France's financial crimes office says the IOC member is being investigated for corruption. Tsunekazu Takeda, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, at the 127th International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in Monaco in December 2014. He has denied allegations of bribery connected to the Tokyo Games bid.

French authorities have been investigating more than $2 million US in payments that the Tokyo bid committee made to a Singaporean consultancy firm, both before and after the 2013 vote where the city beat out Madrid and Istanbul for the 2020 Olympics.

Black Tidings, the company in question, is associated with Papa Massata Diack, the son of the former head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Lamine Diack.

The elder Diack is facing French charges — brought by the same Paris anti-corruption judge — of having taken millions in payments to cover up failed doping tests by Russian athletes, and having steered TV and sponsorship deals to his son and his associates.

The younger Diack is currently on Interpol's wanted list and remains holed up in his native Senegal, where the government has refused all extradition requests.

Takeda and a number of other people involved in the Tokyo bid voluntarily submitted to questioning by Japanese prosecutors in 2017, at the request of French authorities. They maintain that the Singapore payments were all above-board.

Japan's Olympic Committee appointed an independent panel to investigate the consulting contracts in 2016, and it came to the same conclusion.

At an appearance in Tokyo today, Takeda reiterated that no bribes were paid, but said he was sorry for the continuing bad publicity. "I apologize for the huge worries that have been brought to the people of Japan, who have given so much support to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, and in order to put every doubt to rest I intend to continue cooperating with investigations," he told reporters.

The 71-year-old also serves as the vice-chairman of the Tokyo Games organizing committee, and has long been a nationally known figure in Japan, being the great-grandson of the Emperor Meiji and second-cousin of the country's current ruler.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has opened its own ethics probe into the matter, but issued a statement today saying that Takeda "continues to enjoy the full presumption of innocence."

The Tokyo Games have been operating under a cloud for the past few months as various levels of government bicker about the spiralling cost of staging the 2020 Olympics.

In October, Japan's national Board of Audits released a report suggesting that the true cost of hosting the competition will be in excess of $25 billion — more than four-times the bid budget.

Games backers dispute that calculation, saying it unfairly includes the full costs of projects like road and transport upgrades, weather satellites and heat-stroke awareness that needed to happen regardless of the festivities. But even the latest budget from the Tokyo Organizing Committee has the Olympics priced at $16.7 billion, almost double the original projected cost for the "compact, sustainable" Games, with 19 months of preparation still to come.

The IOC, which is continuing to struggle with the fallout from the Russian cheating scandal, actually got a bit of good news today.
The city of Stockholm met a Friday deadline to ratify its bid for the 2026 Winter Games, overcoming objections from some legislators and community groups.

The plan calls for events to be split between the Swedish capital, a ski resort 500 kilometres to the northwest, and an existing sliding venue across the Baltic Sea in Latvia.

The bid ensures that there will actually be a competition for the 2026 rights, as Milan/Cortina d'Ampezzo was the only other possible venue.
And if divine intervention is required, there is hope there too.

Yesterday, the Vatican launched its own athletics team, featuring nuns, priests, Swiss Guards and maintenance workers.

The goal is to ultimately march in an Opening Ceremony under the flag of the Holy See.

Given the respective state of the Olympic and Catholic Church brands, that might be perfect synergy.