The sporting world was equally shocked as the rest of the world by the assassination of the former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
An ardent lover of sports, the country’s longest serving Prime Minister Abe was known as a man with a mission and the most prominent figure behind Tokyo’s highly successful Olympic Games last year.
Abe was instrumental in Japan winning the bid to host the Tokyo 2020 Games, and Abe set an example to the rest of the world by leading the way in hosting the Olympics during one of the most challenging times in history.
The Games were originally scheduled to kick off in July 2020, but was postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first such instance in the history of the Olympics, and the then Prime Minister Abe had insisted that the Games “must be held in a way that shows the world has won its battle against the Coronavirus pandemic.”
The sporting world paid tributes to the fallen leader, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach calling him a “dear friend of the Olympic Movement”.
“Japan has lost a great statesman, and the IOC has lost a valiant supporter and a dear friend of the Olympic Movement. On behalf of the International Olympic Committee, I would like to extend my most sincere condolences to his family, his friends and the Japanese people. Only his vision, determination and dependability allowed us to take the unprecedented decision to postpone the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Without Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, these Olympic Games would never have happened, and the Olympic dream of athletes from all around the world would not have come true,” Bach said in a statement, adding that Abe was “a man of his word”.
Abe’s Games campaign faced huge backlashes due to the extraordinary cost of Tokyo 2020, but he was optimistic and kept his cool. He also helped set an optimistic mood for the Games by appearing in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics’ closing ceremony sporting the costume of the popular video game character “Mario” in a surprise move.
Abe was awarded the Olympic Order by Bach last November for his contribution to the Olympic movement.
International Paralympic Committee President Andrew Parsons, World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont and the Australian Olympic Committee were also among the first to pay tributes to the fallen leader.
