The 41nd Workshop

12 April 2022
Theme: Report from the Japanese Team of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games
Lecturer: KAWAI Junichi, head of the Japanese delegation for the Tokyo Paralympics and OBINATA Kuniko, Alpine skiing team leader
Panelist: SAKURAMA Yuko, deputy head of the Japanese delegation
Moderator: WATARI Tadashi, Associate Professor, Juntendo University

The Nippon Foundation Parasports Support Center Paralympic Research Group held an online workshop, "Report from the Japanese Team of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games," on 12 April.

The workshop featured KAWAI Junichi, head of the Japanese delegation, and OBINATA Kuniko, Alpine skiing team leader. They raised the following issues: the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China's efforts to dramatically increase its medal count, and the challenges ahead of the 2026 Milano Cortina Games. The discussion was moderated by WATARI Tadashi, associate professor of Juntendo University, and joined by SAKURAMA Yuko, deputy head of the Japanese delegation as a panelist. They discussed the media coverage of the Beijing Games, as well as the proportion of women and persons with disabilities in the athletes' team and its significance.

KAWAI Junichi, head of the Japanese delegation
Japan's national team won seven medals, including four gold medals. MURAOKA Momoka, who won gold for the second Games in a row, is the Japanese record holder for the most gold medals in the Winter Games, while KAWAYOKE Taiki is the youngest Japanese gold medalist in the Winter Games. It was the first time that both the captain and the flag bearer won gold, and it was also an achievement to win the largest number of medals at the Winter Games with the exception of the Nagano 1998 Games, which were held in Japan. The Japanese team was well-balanced in blending young and experienced athletes, but there were zero female snowboarders and an extremely small number of visually impaired athletes. The host country, China, improved from one gold to 18 golds, and leapt to number one in the gold medal ranking. Not all of their measures can be imitated - finding and developing talent, developing facilities for year-round training and inviting coaches from abroad - but they can be used as a reference for issues to tackle in the future.

OBINATA Kuniko, Alpine skiing team leader
The Beijing Games were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it impossible to preview any of the courses in advance, and also made overall conditions difficult. This meant that the athletes had to be flexible. MURAOKA, who was able to assess the course in a short time and draw from her techniques the ones that suited the course, showed overwhelming strength in women's Alpine skiing. There were also changing trends, with mainstream chair ski models switching from Japanese to French manufacturers and car manufacturers entering the market. A major challenge for the four skiing disciplines is to find and train the next generation of athletes.

WATARI Tadashi, Associate Professor, Juntendo University
Compared to the Tokyo Games, there was considerably less television coverage, and it seemed that there were not many live broadcasts on NHK. How did the fact that the Games were held abroad and not in Tokyo, and that they were Winter Games, affect this? What was the level of media attention in relation to specific airtimes and the size of the event? We hope that data and analysis will emerge in the future. In addition, the athletes were faced with the Ukrainian crisis as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It may be difficult to recognize that sports is a part of society, but Mr. KAWAI's remarks and focus on strengthening athlete education in the future made me feel that there is hope for the Japanese sports community.

SAKURAMA Yuko, deputy head of the Japanese delegation
During the Games, the Women's Committee of the Japan Paralympic Committee (JPC) took action to celebrate International Women's Day as the Women's Committee of the JPC, and posted on social networking sites. Recently, gender balance is often discussed. The percentage of women among executives of the Japanese delegation of the Beijing Winter Paralympics was 27.3%, and compared to 17.4% at the Olympic Games, shows that women are making progress. This is probably because the JPC is always taking gender balance into account, which includes how I became deputy head. In particular, being a sports staff member who is a woman, with a disability, and being involved in winter sports, makes you an extremely small minority. It made me feel that it is important to have someone in sports organizations who understand about women.