Tokyo 2020 Sports Director Aims for Olympic Inspiration

Murofushi was named sports director for Tokyo 2020 last month. The 39-year-old is a gold medalist in hammer throw from the 2004 Games and won the bronze at London in 2012.

He says he is approaching this new chapter in his career as a way to bring the young generation of Japan to Olympic sports.

Murofushi has the Olympics in his blood. His father was also a hammer throw champion, medalling at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, Murofushi travelled with his father to the Games and says that experience helped propel him towards becoming a competitive athlete.

"I have great memories in the stadium and outside of the stadium, as people were very friendly and the atmosphere was fantastic. The Olympics inspired me so much in my younger years.

"If I can do something in my career that inspires kids to get into sports, the same way I was inspired, that’ll be great," Murofushi told Around the Rings in Tokyo last month.

While he holds the title of sports director as well as a seat on the Tokyo 2020 Executive Board, Murofushi may be more of a public face for the Games then a day-to-day administrator. This week Murofushi could be found met with fifth graders in Tokyo, talking to them about the Olympics and answering their questions.

"The greatest achievement of an athlete is not a gold medal, but helping out the next generation. That is my main goal, and if you can do that it’s successful for your career," he says.

Murofushi is also not ready to give up competing, hoping to make the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing. As an active athlete, he says he is able to bring an important perspective to Tokyo 2020 as it prepares to receive 10,500 Olympians.

"Being an athlete is a very important thing for me at this point. You have to compete if you want to know the needs of athletes," says Murofushi.

Murofushi is also more than an ambassador for the Tokyo Games. He was an active participant in the delegation from Tokyo that attended the debriefing from Sochi to Pyeongchang earlier this month. IOC president Thomas Bach buttonholed Murofushi to talk to him at the closing session of the debriefing.

As Tokyo begins its serious preparation for the Games, Murofushi says he is looking forward to the changes coming, such as a new national stadium that will take the place of the stadium built for the 1964 Olympics. While symbolic, the old stadium is no longer suitable for major international competitions such as the 2019 Rugby World Cup to be hosted by Japan.

"As an athlete, I want everyone to make their personal best [in the stadium] and I want it to be a place of international gathering. We can’t forget about that. It’s a place that’s open for everyone around the world. I think of it as a symbol.

"Structurally, the stadium built in 1960 is so clean and so well built. Now, it’s time to make a new, modern stadium that will be suitable for a modern generation," he says.

Nonetheless he wants the memories of the first Olympics in Tokyo to be part of the 2020 Games. He hopes many athletes from Japan and the rest of the world who competed in 1964 will come back for the 2020 edition.

Already he has forged a relationship with Polish Olympic great and IOC member Irina Szewinska who won three medals, including a gold, as an 18-year-old in 1964. She fittingly is a member of the IOC Coordination Commission for 2020, the only member of the group with a direct link to Tokyo 1964. Murofushi accompanied the commission and took part in the closed-door briefings held in Tokyo at the end of June.

Murofushi tells Around the Rings that he hopes Japan delivers a high level of hospitality to athletes and visitors in 2020. He says that’s a legacy that will live on for years around the world.

He recounts the experienceof Ed Burke, a hammer thrower from the US who competed in Tokyo – – – and then 20 years later in Los Angeles where he carried the flag for the US team during opening ceremony.

"He told me a story about his first competition in 1964. After the competition finished, he was thinking about what would be a good souvenir. Ed and his friend, in particular, were thinking about taking an Olympic flag, which is illegal. They snuck into the Olympic Village and took the flag and hid it.

"The police found out, but they couldn’t find the flag, so the Chef de Mission came to take them back to the Olympic Village. Ed packed the flag with his dirty clothes and mailed it back to California.

"When he received the package two weeks later, he was amazed to find that everything was washed and folded neatly, with the Olympic flag sitting on top of the clothes.

"I just wanted to share this story to tell you about the hospitality of the Japanese people. It’s a standard. We say omotenashi – that’s a key word for us. It’s a Japanese way to describe hospitality. I’m sure we can welcome athletes and visitors with the heart of omotenashi," he says.

Besides throwing the hammer, Murofushi is honing his skills as a calligrapher. In particular he has become enamored with words from fabled Japanese poet Matsuo Basho. Murofushi has perfected on ink and paper two words from Basho, one of the founders of haiku, who lived more than 500 years ago.

"The words are immutability and fluidity. The meaning is, you have to keep seeking for new things and change to maintain. My goal is to do that – keep seeking for new things in order to maintain. That’s my philosophy for these Games," says Murofushi.

Written by Ed Hula.Transcription by Andrew Murrell.