— Published January 13, 2025

Morinari Watanabe clarifies his idea

IOC

Ahead of the oral exam on January 30 in Lausanne, Morinari Watanabe detailed to AFP the most audacious idea in his program as candidate for the presidency of the IOC: not to confine the Games to a city or a country, but organize them at the same time on five continents, to integrate even more people. "A crazy idea" by his own admission. "My job is to open the door. Whether that happens or not is not so important: we have to open discussions and propose new ideas”, justifies the Japanese, president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). Football had already tried the experiment during Euro 2020, which involved ten different countries. In the case of the Games, the specificities of each continent would allowavoid athletes "to compete early in the morning or late in the evening" since the location of the events would be determined according to local climatic conditions. Which, on paper, would favor performances. Games spread out across the four corners of the planet would also be broaden the spectrum of potential sponsors, and thus generate more income. This idea would make A major victim, the Olympic village, but Watanabe plans to bring all the athletes together in a different way, for a " Olympic forum », once the Games are over.