TOKYO: Japanese municipalities that hosted athletes from around the world for the Tokyo Olympic Games last year are working to turn exchanges with the athletes’ home countries into an Olympic legacy.

For the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, many local governments partnered with specific countries outside Japan to accept athletes for training sessions and interactions with local residents.

The city of Ota in Gunma Prefecture, eastern Japan, had accepted the Australian women’s national softball team for a training camp before the Olympics. The city wanted to build on the relationship with the team formed through the Games.

After the city asked the Australian side to send an athlete, former Olympic hopeful Stephanie Trzcinski, 26, arrived in Japan to work as an assistant language teacher at Ota Municipal High School and coach the school’s softball club from April this year.

The school is known to be one of the powerhouses of high school girls’ softball teams in Japan. No one on the team can even hit the ball thrown by Trzcinski, who plays as pitcher, if she delivers the pitches at full force, the club’s supervisor said. Students are already showing signs of improving thanks to her coaching, according to the supervisor.

Two teachers from the southeastern African nation of Malawi are set to arrive in Ota next spring. The city had also welcomed athletes from the country as the Tokyo Games host town.

An official at the city’s board of education voiced expectations for the new arrivals, saying, “We can’t wait for them to teach students, as well as their interactions with other teachers.”

The city of Nasushiobara in neighboring Tochigi Prefecture hosted athletes representing Austria for triathlon competitions at the Tokyo Olympics.

Although the athletes were unable to engage directly with local residents at the time, students at elementary schools in the city and schools in Austria have introduced their cultures to each another during online sessions after the Tokyo Games ended.

Nasushiobara is also currently planning a project for local residents to be involved in exchanges with Austria. “I think relationships like this are a legacy,” a city government official said.

In stark contrast to the two cities, an official at Okuizumo said that the town in the western prefecture of Shimane has struggled to form a relationship with India after it gave up on a plan in March last year to host the Indian hockey team for pre-Olympics training.

The northeastern city of Yamagata also canceled plans to host athletes from countries including Thailand for training sessions.

Yamagata had planned to welcome the Thai judo team for a training camp ahead of the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, but the plan was scrapped after the event was postponed from September due to the pandemic.

“We thought that we’d finally be able to interact (with the Thai side) as planned,” a Yamagata city official said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has complicated efforts to promote exchange programs by host towns that had welcomed Russian athletes in line with the Tokyo Games.

The city of Munakata in the southwestern prefecture of Fukuoka had accepted the Russian women’s rugby sevens team.

Munakata had been preparing to hold online rugby classes and other events after the Tokyo Games, but these plans fell through after Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

“We are not currently at a stage where we should use taxpayer money to interact with the Russian side,” a Munakata city official said.

JIJI Press