2020 Olympic Swimming Venue to Remain in Tokyo; Capacity Cut to 15,000

Photo Courtesy: The Japan Times

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The organizers of the 2020 Olympic Games announced Tuesday that venues for several sports, including swimming, will remain in their planned Tokyo locations despite looming high costs. In recent months, swimming, canoe sprint and rowing had all been possibilities to move to existing venues outside of Tokyo.

According to a report from the Associated Press, swimming will be built as planned in Tatsumi (Eastern Tokyo), but the seating capacity of the venue will be cut from 20,000 to 15,000, saving some 14 billion yen ($125 million).

Sprint canoe and rowing will remain at the to-be-constructed Sea Forest venue, while volleyball may still be moved. The planned volleyball arena on Tokyo’s coast would cost 40 billion yen ($360 million) to construct, and Tokyo Gov. Yoriko Koike plans to make a decision by the end of the month whether to go ahead with that project or house volleyball in the existing Yokohoma Arena.

During discussions Tuesday between the IOC, Tokyo 2020 organizers, Japanese government officials and Tokyo city officials, Tokyo organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto proposed a 2 trillion yen ($18 billion) cap on spending for the Games, but IOC vice president John Coates insisted that while his organization would not agree to that limit, he anticipated that costs would come in even lower.

Read the full AP story here.

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