At the Tokyo Olympics, the women's 10,000-meter final was held, and Ririka Hironaka finished 7th with a time of 31 minutes 0 seconds 71, which set her personal best for more than 10 seconds, and has been 25 as a Japanese player since the 1996 Atlanta Games. I won the prize for the first time in a year.


Hitomi Niiya was 21st at 32: 23.87, and Yuka Ando was 22nd at 32: 40.77.

Shintani's anguish continues to ask "the significance of holding the Olympics"

33-year-old Hitomi Niiya, who has been leading the women's long-distance world. Behind the scenes of participating in the Olympic Games for the first time in two tournaments, I continued to question the significance of the event itself, and even thought about declining the representative.



Is it possible to leave the "results" that are always pursued? With that anxiety and fear, Shintani, who said, "I always tremble all over my body," continued to struggle and suffer before he entered the competition.



While the pros and cons of whether to hold the tournament or to cancel or postpone it in response to the spread of the new coronavirus infection have been divided, the remarks of Shintani have increased at a stretch since the appointment of the representative in December last year. rice field.



"I agree as an athlete, but I disagree as a nation." While



many athletes refrained from making conspicuous remarks when asked to comment, Shintani did not stop commenting on interviews and on his SNS.



"To be honest, I think life is more important than the Olympics."


"It should be understood that it is the people who create a place where athletes can play an active role. Isn't it good? ”



The background of these remarks was the experience of office workers after they retired.



"I'm really happy to be paid for what I'm good at."


"What is required is not only the result, but how close you can fight



to the people.

"

Athletes should be close to the feelings of the people. I continued. Voices of "cancellation" and "postponement" that do not fit even one month before the start of the tournament. Shintani was being driven in secret. He was thinking of declining the representative.



"Every time the word" Tokyo Olympics "resonated in my head, I honestly thought I would decline."



Too heavy "decline representative". It was the "words" spoken by the person in charge of the company to which Shintani spoke frankly that gave him the opportunity to cut off that feeling and solidify his determination to stand on the stage of the Olympics.



"The Olympics are not everything. We will do our best to support the answer that Mr. Shintani made the final decision, and we want to be a company that protects one person, Hitomi



Niiya." player.



It was



the starting line of the national stadium that I decided to stand, saying,

"I

will

accept all the voices and feelings of not only those who support me but also those who do not

."