Sapporo's "share of the bill for hosting a part" of the 2020 Olympics football competition will come to about 11.9B yen ($104.8M), according to sources with knowledge of the cost. Sapporo is set to host first-round football matches for the Tokyo Games. The sources said that the total "accounts for work on the overlay at Sapporo Dome and operational costs including transport and security." The 2020 organizing committee estimates the total construction cost for the 11 Tokyo Games venues in six different prefectures outside Tokyo at around 43.8B yen ($385.6M) (KYODO, 2/21).
The re-testing of samples from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics "to identify any cheats who had competed there will last another five years" to '22, the IOC said. The IOC is re-testing "thousands of samples" from the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Summer Games as well as the Vancouver 2010 and Sochi Winter Olympics to "root out any doping offenders." More than 100 have "so far seen their sample test positive from Beijing and London alone, with dozens of medals having been stripped so far" (REUTERS, 2/21).
The Olympic Council of Asia "emphasized its commitment to affordable sports growth" on Tuesday, holding current Asian Winter Games host Sapporo up as "an ideal for others to follow." OCA Honorary Life VP Wei Jizhong gave "glowing marks" to the three-time Asian Winter Games host for constructing nothing for the Games, with only "necessary renovation of hardware." He added that the Games in Sapporo and Obihiro employed nearly 100% local staff, who have learned "from scratch" what it takes to host an event such as this (KYODO, 2/21).