TOKYO: Seiko Hashimoto has been elected president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, becoming the first woman to head the body. She is a former Olympian and was elected late Thursday to replace Yasuhiro Yamashita, who served three terms.

Hashimoto competed in cycling in three Summer Olympics (1988, 1992 and 1996), and in speedskating in four Winter Olympics (1984, 1988, 1992 and 1994). She won a bronze medal at the 1992 Albertville Games in speedskating.

Hashimoto has served as a government minister for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and is currently a member of the upper house of the Japanese parliament.

She also was appointed president of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee early in 2021. She replaced Yoshiro Mori, a former Japanese prime minister who was forced to resign as president of the committee after making sexist comments about women.

Japanese media reported that she had met recently with outgoing International Olympic President Thomas Bach and had been encouraged to have Japan bid for another Olympics.

“I believe the JOC’s mission is to bid again to host the Olympics and Paralympics,” she was quoted as saying by Japanese news agency Kyodo.

The Tokyo Olympics were held in 2021 after being delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even before the delay, the Tokyo Games were plagued by rising costs and eventually by a bid-rigging scandal that forced Japan to drop a potential bid by the northern city of Sapporo for the 2030 Winter Olympics.

Hashimoto is sure to face close scrutiny. The Asahi Shimbun newspaper, on its English-language website, reported she addressed the question of a political funding scandal linked to the ruling LDP party.

“I would not have run if there had been any suspicion over my actions,” the newspaper reported her saying.

AP