(ATR) The IOC's Tokyo 2020 inspection chief says he doesn't doubt the originality of the Games logo but admits mounting criticism forced organisers to scrap it on Tuesday.
John Coates, 2020 Gamescoordination commission chair, said the IOC was informed earlier Tuesday by Tokyo 2020 president Yoshiro Mori that the executive committee had decided to scrap the KenjiroSano design and to "start afresh and conduct a Japan-wide competition for a new design".
"There is no question about the originality of Mr Sano’s emblem, the design that he did," Coates said in a statement.
"But such was the criticism and the weight of it in Japan that I can well understand the decision that the Tokyo organising committee has taken and we look forward to the outcome of the new design competition."
Tokyo 2020 scrapped its logo following allegations the design was plagiarized.
Games chiefs held an emergency press conference in the Japanese capital on Tuesday to announce their decision. It followed fresh allegations over the weekend that designer Sano had copied online materials.
"We have reached a conclusion that it would be only appropriate for us to drop the logo and develop a new emblem," said Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto."At this point, we have decided that the logo cannot gain public support."
Muto confirmed that Olympic organizers will stage another design competition to find a new emblem "as soon as possible".
"We want to make the selection process more transparent," hetold the news conference. "We have explained and apologized to sponsors who have used the dropped logo."
Sano reportedly defended his logo in discussions with Tokyo 2020 officials on Monday before he withdrew it. Mutosaid that Sano had done so "to avoid the adverse effect on the Tokyo Olympicsin the case of national opposition".
The decision came four days after Tokyo 2020 stood by Sano, defending him against accusations his design was copied from a Belgian theater. Tokyo 2020had said the "T'' shape on his first submitted logo design did not resemble that of Theater de Liege and a global trademark search had failed to unearth similarities that may have prompted legal challenges. But aBelgian graphic designer took legal action, claiming the Olympic emblem was too similar to his theater logo.
On Tuesday, the scrapped logo was still in evidence on Tokyo 2020's website and Twitter pages. A huge brand overhaul will now be needed.
Scrapping the logo is the latest blow to Tokyo’s Olympic preparations afterPrime Minister Shinzo Abe axed the Zaha Hadid-designed Olympic stadium over cost concerns in July. At $2.5 billion it would have become the world’s most expensive stadium.
The IOC is helping with the tender for a new national stadium. The Japanese government said last week it wanted to cap the stadium cost at $1.3 billion. Construction won't begin on the 68,000-seater until next year. The IOC has set a January 2020 completion deadline to allow foradditional overlay in the stadium, technical installation, Olympic Broadcasting Services preparations and rehearsals for the opening ceremony.
Last week, Olympics minister Toshiaki Endo said the deadline was a "heavy request".
Reported by Mark Bisson and Hironori Hashimoto in Tokyo
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