Tokyo 2020: Seiko Hashimoto makes history as male-dominated board appoints her new president of Games organising committee
- The 56-year-old appeared in four Winter Games and three Summer Olympics and takes over from Yoshiro Mori, who resigned after making a sexist remark
- Her name comes from the word ‘seika’, which translates as Olympic flame in English
Seiko Hashimoto appeared in seven Olympics – four Winter Olympics and three Summer Olympics. According to historian Bill Mallon, her seven appearances is the most by any “multi-season” athlete in the games.
Hashimoto made even more history on Thursday in Japan, where women are still rare in the boardrooms and positions of political power.
The 56-year-old Hashimoto was named as president of the Tokyo Olympic organising committee after a meeting of its male-dominated executive board. She replaces 83-year-old Yoshiro Mori, a former Japanese prime minister who was forced to resign last week after making sexist comments about women.
Essentially, he said women talk too much. Hashimoto had been serving as the Olympic minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. She also held a portfolio dealing with gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Watch Seiko Hashimoto at the 1992 Winter Olympics
She competed in three Summer Olympics (‘88, ‘92 and ‘96) in cycling and in four Winter Olympics (‘84, ‘88, ‘92 and ‘94) in speedskating. She won a bronze medal – her only medal – in 1992 in at 1,500 metres in speedskating.