Japan's Hashimoto front-runner for Tokyo Games head

ANKARA

Japanese Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto was nominated Wednesday to be the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games chief, according to media reports.

The Kyodo News agency said that Hashimoto, 56, who is a former athlete, appeared to be "the most likely candidate to take the helm of the country's organizing committee to stage the Tokyo Games this summer."

The Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games is a former speed skater who appeared in seven Olympics from 1984-1996.

She won bronze in the 1,500-meter speed skating race at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.

Hashimoto also was an Olympic cyclist in the Summer Games.

Tokyo’s former Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori resigned last week because of sexist comments.

Mori, who led the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee since 2014, quit after widespread criticism for remarks in which he said: "Women talk too much" during a committee meeting more than one week ago.