After the gold medal was bitten, the International Olympic Committee apologized for the replacement of the athletes by the mayor of Japan: willing to bear all costs

　　[Global Times Comprehensive Report] The Mayor of Nagoya's "gold medal bite", which has recently been hotly discussed by Japanese public opinion, has a follow-up.

　　According to a report by Japan’s “Yomiuri Shimbun” on the 12th, when Nagoya Mayor Takayuki Kawamura met at the city hall on the 4th of this month, when he met Nozomi Goto, a Japanese athlete who won the softball match at the Tokyo Olympics, he suddenly took off his mask and learned a lot. The appearance of awarding athletes took a bite of the gold medal.

This move caused widespread criticism on Japanese social networks. Many Japanese professional athletes expressed dissatisfaction with this matter. Many netizens accused Kawamura of not complying with epidemic prevention and control measures, and biting others' gold medals is a very rude performance.

Nozomi Goto’s club also protested to the Nagoya City Government, calling it "inappropriate and undesirable behavior."

Although Takashi Kawamura later came to explain and apologized, and submitted an "approval letter" to Goto Nozomi and the Japanese Softball Association, the Nagoya City Government still received more than 8,000 complaints.

　　Nagoya City is the headquarters of Toyota Motor Corporation. The company is the operator of the Toyota Red Team of the Japanese Softball Professional League to which Nozomi Goto belongs, and is also the largest sponsor of the Tokyo Olympics.

Toyota Motor Corporation made a request to the Olympic Committee of Japan, hoping to replace the gold medal contaminated by Takayuki Kawamura's saliva.

　　Since such problems have never occurred, the Japanese Olympic Committee filed a report to the competent government department.

On the 11th, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Hagiuda held a press conference, criticizing Takayuki Kawamura for "bringing a very bad influence" and expressing that the government agreed to replace the gold medal.

　　Kyodo News quoted a source on the 12th as saying that after obtaining Nozomi Goto’s consent, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Japanese Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee negotiated and finally decided to replace her with a gold medal. It is expected that this "new" gold medal will be delivered to her in the near future.

Takayuki Kawamura again apologized on the 12th and said that he had contacted the chairman of the Japanese Olympic Committee Yasuhiro Yamashita and was willing to bear all the costs of replacing the gold medal.

However, according to a report on the Japanese NHK website on the 12th, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee has expressed its gratitude to the International Olympic Committee for the replacement of the gold medal, and emphasized that "the relevant expenses shall be borne by the International Olympic Committee."

In this regard, some Japanese netizens ridiculed: "We not only want to change the gold medal, but we also want to change the mayor of Kawamura."

　　"The Asahi Shimbun" reported on the 12th that because of the huge whirlpool of public opinion, Takayuki Kawamura will be absent from the Paralympic torch lighting ceremony originally scheduled to participate in and other recent public events.

(Lee Hai)