The Youth Olympic Games are not just about sport, Thomas Bach likes to point out. They are also focused on culture, education and exchange. In Nanjing, the event is also used to talk politics. Saturday August 16, a few hours before the opening ceremony, French and Japanese met in a lounge of the Fairmont hotel, a stone's throw from the athletics stadium and the swimming pool of the 2014 Summer YOG. meeting was not confidential. It led to the signing of a cooperation agreement between the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) and its Japanese equivalent (JOC).
On one side of the table, Denis Masseglia, the president of the CNOSF, Tony Estanguet, member of the IOC and head of mission of the French delegation in Nanking, and Michaël Aloisïo, the head of international relations of the CNOSF. On the other, a trio composed of Tsunekazu Takeda, IOC member and president of the JOC, Tsuyochi Aoki, vice-president and secretary-general of the JOC, and Yasuo Saito, member of the JOC and former Japanese ambassador to France.
The agreement signed between the two parties is intended to be lasting. It was concluded until 2020, i.e. until the Tokyo Summer Games. Above all, it aims to be as broad and diverse as possible. It provides for a vast program of exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, for their respective athletes, officials and coaches. Classic. A program which will notably be brought to fruition by the use by the French and Japanese national teams of the structures of INSEP, in Paris, and the National Training Center in Tokyo.
Less usual, the agreement signed on Saturday in Nanking also provides for cooperation between France and Japan on marketing issues. Finally, it specifies in black and white that the two countries will share information, dare we say tips, on the Olympic movement. Clearly, they will make common cause in this universe where nothing is really possible without a solid network and a keen sense of alliances.
There is nothing particularly new about such an agreement. In its press release announcing the news, the Japanese Olympic Committee specifies that it has already signed around thirty before initialing the one concluded with the CNOSF. Nevertheless, France has everything to gain by getting closer to Japan. Tokyo having won hands down the organization of the Summer Games in 2020, it is certain that Japanese leaders will not place themselves on the route of a candidacy from Paris, whether it materializes for 2024 or whether it waits until 2028. When the time comes to vote, Japan's votes will be up for grabs, for Europe as well as for the United States. “We have a lot to learn from Japan, a great sporting country which will host the Olympic Games in 2020,” commented Denis Masseglia during the handshake. Everything to learn and much to gain.
