Toyo University Athletes of the Olympic and Paralympic Games

I believe the decision to hold the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo was made in September 2013.
That year was also when all eyes in Japan were focused on men’s sprinting, thanks to a high school student named Yoshihide Kiryu running an astonishing 10.01. The following year, I came to Toyo University with Kiryu, and we began to train for the Tokyo Olympics. At that time, there was no way of knowing that COVID-19 would occur, and the Olympics would be postponed to 2021. However, I believe in our remaining possibilities, and together with Kiryu we are giving it our all every day with our eyes on the Olympic stage. At the Tokyo Games, a big goal of ours is to achieve results in the 100m, but another major goal is to win gold in the 4x100m relay.
I have been Japan Team Coach since 2008, and I have been competing together with the athletes on the world stage. In 2016, the four “relay samurai,” including Kiryu, swept past the UK and US teams and won a silver medal behind a Jamaican team lead by Usain Bolt. We were neck with the Jamaicans until the baton was handed to Bolt, so rather than losing to Jamaica, it felt like we lost to Bolt. Bolt subsequently retired, and the current Jamaican team is not as strong. At the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, with Kiryu running the third leg and the 9.97 Sani Brown running the anchor leg, the team won bronze with a new Asian record of 37.43. It would not be unusual for this record to be a gold-medal-winning record, so we were ready to face the Tokyo Games with the realistic goal of a Gold Medal.
Incidentally, I have a certain affection for the 4x100m relay. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, my first Olympic Games as a 4th year student, we expected to finish in the top eight. But unfortunately, we were disqualified in the qualifiers for a baton error. After that, I wasn’t able to qualify in the 100m individual event, but I was able to finish in the top eight in the 4x100m relay at the Asian Games and World Athletics Championships. Then at the age of 30, as the culmination of my career as an athlete, I went to the 2004 Athens Olympics. I went into the Olympics with the confidence that we would win a medal, but I made a mistake at the start, and we finished fourth. As I could no longer compete age-wise, I decided to work with the Japan relay team as a coach and member of staff. I was wholeheartedly focused on regaining the medal that I failed to win, and at the 2008 Beijing Games, we won a bronze medal (later advanced to silver). Subsequently, the level of Japanese sprinting is increasing with the emergence of many strong sprinters such as Kiryu, Sani Brown, Cambridge, and Yamagata.
“The Hinomaru on the center pole” is the slogan of the Japanese swimming team, taught to me by Coach Hirai. The men's 4x100m team has finally become able to set the same goal as the swimming team, and this is deeply moving as someone who has been involved with the team as an athlete, coach, and member of staff.
We do not know what will happen with the Olympics that have been postponed until 2021. However, I pray that the Olympics can be held in a way that the Japanese people and people worldwide welcome. If this can come true, then I feel that the athletes will respond to everyone’s expectations.

Hiroyasu Tsuchie

Professor, Department of Business Law, Faculty of Law
Coach, The Sprints Division, Toyo University Track and Field Club
Coach for the Olympic Games, Japan Association of Athletics Federations

The spirit of the modern Olympics (Olympism) is built on the philosophy of contributing to education, international cooperation, and the realization of world peace through sport.
The Olympics is a time when we put down weapons and enjoy sport together. Competing fairly, understanding each other's differences in thinking through close cooperation, and fostering a spirit of friendship. In modern times where wars persist in all parts of the world, the peace process that the modern Olympics aims to achieve continues to have a significant meaning.
However, Tokyo 2020 seems slightly different, having been rocked by the crisis of postponement and reorganization due to the impact of COVID-19. Until now, deepening mutual understanding through competition was the epitome of the Olympics Games, with athletes from all over the world coming together and spending time with one another in the Athlete’s Village and interacting with the host nation's culture. However, COVID-19 has made people keep physical distance away from others. In the operation of the Games, it is demanded that people do not get together. In other words, the Olympic philosophy remains the same, but we are standing at a crossroads where we should think about the nature of the Olympics Games.
Toyo University (in 1887) and the modern Olympics (in 1896) were founded at almost the same time, and both have existed throughout the same eras. During this time, Toyo University has produced over 30 Olympians and many medalists.
Toyo University has a good relationship with the Olympics, and since 2015 when the decision was made to hold the 2020 Games in Tokyo, the “Lecture on the Olympic and Paralympic Games” has been held as a university-wide course. It is an omnibus lecture that utilizes the strengths of a university, and Toyo University faculty give multifaceted talks on the Olympic and Paralympic Games from the perspective of their specialization. Since its inception, the lecture has been popular, with around 1300 students taking the AY2021 spring semester online lecture.
With the eyes of the world on the Tokyo 2020 Games, I want Toyo University students to contemplate the value and meaning of the Olympic and Paralympic Games once again carefully. No matter what path you take, I am sure that the spirit of philosophy that you fostered at Toyo University will be something you value for the rest of your lives.

Hironori Tanigama

Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Law
Coach, Toyo University Basketball Club