Photo/Illutration Seiko Hashimoto skates in the women's 3,000-meter race in the Lillehammer Olympics in 1994. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

In her book "Orinpikku Damashii" (The Olympic Spirit), Seiko Hashimoto explains the names of her three children.

Her first-born, a daughter, was born in the year of the Sydney Olympics. She was named Seika, a homonym of the Japanese word for the Olympic torch.

The two sons who followed were also born in Olympic years--the older in the year of the Athens Olympics, and the younger in the year of the Turin Winter Olympics. Hashimoto named the boys Girisha (Greece) and Torino (Turin), respectively.

Her own name, chosen by her father, was also derived from the Olympic torch.

When she was a young girl, her father, who expected her to always be honest, asked her if she could ride a bicycle without training wheels.

She replied that she could.

But that was a lie, which her father saw through, and he threw her into a pond to teach her a lesson.

She took the punishment to heart. She practiced furiously the next morning and showed her father she had learned to ride.

Surprisingly, Hashimoto has not always been in perfect health. In fact, she was hospitalized with a kidney problem when she was a third-grader in elementary school.

Some of the other patients she got to know in the children's ward were battling serious illnesses. One girl said to her before she died, "Keep living for me, too." These words inspired her to eventually seek public office.

Hashimoto has participated in seven Olympics, both Summer and Winter Games, as a cyclist in the former and a speed skater in the latter.

In her final challenge in the summer of 1996, she was an Upper House legislator also wearing the hat of an Olympic cyclist.

She trained from 3 a.m. and arrived at the Diet building at 8 a.m. She resumed training after returning home in the evening.

But her hard work was not understood by everyone, and she was dismayed to hear unkind remarks such as, "It must be really easy to compete in cycling events" and, "There's probably not much going on in the Upper House."

Hashimoto, who could perhaps be called a "child of the Olympics" for her close links to the Games at many defining moments in her life, has been chosen to head the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee.

With only five months left until the Games and the pandemic still going on, the job she now faces must be one of the toughest in the world.

Moreover, the person Hashimoto has always held in the highest regard as her "political father figure" was none other than her predecessor, Yoshiro Mori, who was forced to resign for the sexist gaffes he made about women.

Will Hashimoto be able to bring order to this chaos and rekindle the public's enthusiasm for the Tokyo Olympics?

If the Games can be held this summer as planned, that’s all well and good. But I earnestly hope Hashimoto will closely monitor the COVID-19 numbers with total objectivity.

There is no need for her to pretend she can ride a bicycle if she isn't able to.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 19

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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