It has been officially decided that Mami Sato, the Japanese national team for the triathlon who was also involved in the bid for the Tokyo Games, will serve as the flag bearer of the Tokyo Paralympics.
Regarding the flag bearers of the Japanese team of the Tokyo Paralympics, one male and one female, the JPC = Japan Paralympic Committee announced on the 12th that in addition to Yukihiro Iwabuchi of table tennis, Mami Sato of the triathlon will serve.
Tani is 39 years old from Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture.
With a prosthetic leg from the knee of his right foot, he participated in the Paralympics for three consecutive tournaments up to the London Games as a track and field and long jump player, and was selected as the representative of the Tokyo Games on the 12th with a triathlon that he turned five years ago.
At the 2013 IOC Session, even when he lost his right leg due to illness and when his hometown was severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake, he appealed for the power of sports based on his experience of being saved by sports and contributed to the bid for the tournament. ..
Tani said, "I am delighted to be able to welcome the Tokyo Games as an athlete, and I am very honored and responsible for being a flag bearer. My mission is to continue to convey the true reconstruction and the Paralympic movement. I feel that the competition environment for Para-athletes has improved for this tournament, and we are now paying more attention to the importance of diversity and a symbiotic society, and we will connect this trend to the future. For that reason, I believe that the Paralympics will be an important piece. It will be held in the difficult era of global pandemics, but the activities of the Japanese national team players who challenge their limits while having various conflicts will be active. I hope that I will have the power and hope to overcome this difficulty as much as possible. "