TOKYO: Nagasaki pulled out of a bid to co-host the 2020 Summer Olympics with Hiroshima, the other Japanese city hit with an atom bomb in World War II, Nagasaki mayor Tomihisa Taue said yesterday.International Olympic Committee’s rules stipulate that in principle only one city can host the Olympics but there have been exceptions, such as the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, when Hong Kong staged equestrian events.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki announced in October that they wanted to co-host the Olympics in the name of world peace and help accelerate the drive for the global abolition of nuclear weapons. But Japanese Olympic Committee has refused to support the idea. Japanese IOC member Chiharu Igaya told the two cities this week the co-hosting idea would run counter to the IOC ideal of holding a compact Olympics.
“If we continue the co-hosting bid, it would only diminish the chance of staging the Olympics in an atomic-bombed area,” Taue told a televised news conference in Nagasaki. “We will extend full cooperation to Hiroshima if it goes on with a bid campaign alone.”
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some 300 kilometres apart, announced the joint bid in October, shortly after IOC chose Rio de Janeiro as the 2016 Summer Olympics host city, over Tokyo, Chicago and Madrid.
IOC is expected to select the 2020 host in 2013.
Tokyo’s governor Shintaro Ishihara has already expressed his wish to bid again for the 2020 Games.
Japan has already hosted three Olympics — the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo as well as the 1972 and 1998 Winter Games in Sapporo and Nagano.
Rome, Venice, Palermo and Istanbul are reportedly preparing bids for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Other cities, including Cape Town, Durban, Dubai and Rabat, have also been mentioned as possible candidates. — AFP