Olympics: Japan’s athlete count for Paris to be highest sent abroad
Source: The Mainichi
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan’s athlete contingent at this summer’s Paris Olympics will be its largest ever at an overseas games, a Japanese Olympic Committee source said Tuesday.
Although this year’s team has yet to be completely filled out, it will exceed the 339 athletes dispatched to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Japan has already booked places for about 350 athletes, and the final number is expected to reach around 400 when athletics competitors are added to the Olympic roster for the games starting July 26.
The large numbers are due to Japan qualifying at least one team in either the men’s or women’s competition of each team ball sport, something the JOC said has not happened since World War II.
In an interview with Kyodo News, Japan Chef de Mission Mitsugi Ogata said the team has “a mission to exceed” Japan’s record of 16 gold medals from an Olympics held abroad, set at the 2004 Athens Games.
The original article: belongs to The Mainichi .
