Tokyo, Japan, March 4, 2021: A former Chair of the OCA Athletes’ Committee, Yuko Arakida of Japan, has been appointed Vice President of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee.
In a press release dated March 3, Tokyo 2020 said Arakida’s role as Vice President would be to further promote gender equality and respect for diversity at Tokyo 2020.
Arakida was a member of Japan’s gold medal-winning women’s volleyball team at the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976 and is a well-respected sports leader in world volleyball and in the Olympic Movement in Japan.
As Chair of the OCA Athletes’ Committee, Arakida played a prominent role in encouraging the OCA’s 45 National Olympic Committees to establish their own athletes’ committee to represent the opinion of athletes in all matters related to the Olympic Movement.
Arakida, 67, was already a member of the Tokyo 2020 Executive Board.
The new Chair of the OCA Athletes’ Committee is Mikako Kotani, the Tokyo 2020 Sports Director who was recently appointed to lead a Tokyo 2020 gender equality team under the new Tokyo 2020 President, Seiko Hashimoto.
Tokyo 2020 reports that the organising committee resolved to amend the Articles of Incorporation to allow an increase in the maximum number of Executive Board members to 45 in order to reflect a broader range of opinions during preparations for the Games. Thus, 12 new Executive Board members were appointed on March 3.
The 12 new female Executive Board members include Sydney 2000 Olympic marathon champion Naoko Takahashi, who is an Executive Board member of the Japanese Olympic Committee and Japan Association of Athletics Federations.
Source: https://tokyo2020.org