Tokyo To Host 2020 Olympic Games

Maybe next time for Istanbul or Madrid.

All three cities made impassioned pleas to the International Olympic Committee during presentations on Saturday.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphatically promised the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant would have no negative effect on Tokyo, while his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the IOC to choose Istanbul and help “send a strong message of peace to the whole world”.

Madrid emphasised it was ready, dependable and safe, with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy telling members “numbers don’t lie”.

Tokyo’s win comes after two years of intense lobbying and tens of millions of dollars in campaigning by all three candidate cities.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.