Olympics: Hiroshima pulls plug on 2020 bid

TOKYO: Hiroshima formally ended its flirtation with hosting the 2020 Olympics yesterday when Mayor Kazumi Matsui told the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) the city could not afford to bid. Matsui told JOC President Tsunekazu Takeda that Hiroshima had debts still outstanding from staging the 1994 Asian Games which it was struggling to pay off. Hiroshima initially proposed a joint ‘peace bid’ with Nagasaki in a move by the only cities to have suffered an atomic attack to promote nuclear disarmament. Nagasaki abandoned its 2020 Olympic ambitions last January citing financial difficulties.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2011.