Even with the Rio Olympic Games right on the horizon, Tokyo’s preparations to host the 2020 Olympic Games are well underway. And, now those plans have hit a significant snag.
We reported last year how Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium’s original design had to be scaled back in the interest of reducing costs and shortening construction time. The plan’s revisions resulted in having 28,000 of the 80,000 seats in the venue being temporary, while the roof of the venue had its elaborate design scaled back considerably.
Now, Tokyo 2020 organizers are facing the issue of where to place the Olympic cauldron within the stadium, specifically due to the fact that the venue’s partly wooden roof did not include plans for a cauldron. Placing the prized international symbol of the Games on the stadium’s wooden beams could potentially cause the entire roof to collapse due to the immense weight and would violate the Japanese Fire Service Act. (EuroNews)
To tackle the surprise issue, a review panel composed of the Japan Sport Council is discussing viable options to keep the cauldron within the stadium and hopes to have a plan developed by April.
“When we asked the organising committee about what it wanted for the stadium, no mention was made about having the Olympic cauldron within the stadium,” a senior Japan Sport Council official told the newspaper Asahi Shimbun. “We did not consider the location of the cauldron when we were seeking out new designs,” he said.
When thinking of the Olympics the cauldron would be really low on my list of things associated with it, probably right below the rings and just before it being an international sporting competition.