Yokohama gets baseball and softball as IOC OKs venues for five more sports for Tokyo 2020
Kyodo Dec 8, 2016 The Japan Times
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday formally approved the venues for baseball and softball and four other sports to be added to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The venue for baseball and softball as one will be Yokohama Stadium. The 2020 Tokyo Olympic organizing committee did not propose to the IOC any baseball-softball venues in Fukushima Prefecture because talks with the World Baseball Softball Confederation have yet to be concluded.
The karate competition will be held at Nippon Budokan in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, while the surfing events will take place in Ichinomiya, Chiba Prefecture. The venues for skateboarding and sport climbing will be in the Aomi area of Koto Ward, Tokyo.
Earlier in the day, 2020 organizing committee President Yoshiro Mori said the World Baseball Softball Confederation deemed two of the three stadiums in Fukushima Prefecture proposed for the Tokyo Olympics unfit to host the games.
A part of the baseball and softball competition is expected to be held in Fukushima during the 2020 Games. Of the three proposed venues, the city of Fukushima’s Azuma Stadium and Kaiseizan Stadium in Koriyama did not meet the WBSC’s standards as only Iwaki’s Green Stadium passed.
“Fukushima and Koriyama did not get the OK,” Mori said. “(The WBSC said) the condition of the stadiums was not good.”
The WBSC inspected Azuma and Kaiseizan stadiums in November, when, according to Mori, the confederation asked 2020 Vice President Toshiaki Endo to work with Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori to come up with solutions.
Mori said while the IOC is generally supportive of Fukushima being a part of the Games, its chief concern is the distance to and from Tokyo, and whether the travel will be taxing on the athletes.
