Petroleum company Petrobras decided to "revoke sponsorships" for five Brazilian Olympic sports which it had been supporting since '11. Last month, the state-owned company notified each entity's director that it will not be sponsoring boxing, taekwondo, fencing, rowing and weightlifting during the preparations for the Tokyo 2020 Games. Aside from the five sports, the company also supported "athletes pertaining to 15 different modalities," which it called "Team Petrobras." Petrobras ended '16 with a R$14.8B ($4.7B) deficit (FOLHA DE SÃO PAULO, 5/16).
Toyota is "backing a flying car project that developers hope could be used to kick off" the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with a "certain high-tech flair." The automaker is investing 40M yen ($360,000) in SkyDrive, a "drone-like compact flying car designed by a group of Toyota employees in their spare time." The goal is to have the vehicle "ready to go in time to light the torch at the opening ceremony" of the Tokyo Games (NEW ATLAS, 5/16).
The Canadian Paralympic Committee, pharmaceutical company Pfizer Canada, the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario and the IPC announced a partnership that names Pfizer Canada the title sponsor for the VISTA 2017 conference, focusing on Para sport, to be held in Toronto from Sept. 20-23 (IPC).
