The City of Kanazawa registered as Host Town for the French Republic and the Russian Federation for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Host Town Initiative aims to connect Japanese local towns and countries/regions taking part in the Tokyo Games, and to have human, economic and cultural exchanges with the participating countries/regions. (From the Secretariat of the Headquarters for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Cabinet Secretariat)
The City of Kanazawa is sister cities with Nancy City, France, since 1973, and has been taking part in the Japanese-French Collectivities’ Decentralized Meetings and the UNESCO Creative Cities Network with French Cities which contributed in making strong bonds between Kanazawa and France, leading to Kanazawa being registered as France’s Host Town in May 2016.
In December 2019, Kanazawa was registered as France’s Inclusive Society Host Town as well. This Host Town initiative is aimed at welcoming Paralympians, thus speeding up barrier free initiatives in all regions, and maintain a strong bond after the Paralympics.
As for Russia, Kanazawa is sister cities with Irkoutsk since 1967, and has regular mutual exchanges of middle schoolers which contributes in making a strong and active bond, which lead to Kanazawa being registered as Russia’s Host Town in February 2020.
With the help of local actors, we have invited athletes from sports that are prominent in Kanazawa: swimming and weightlifting. We will be welcoming the French Swimming, Weightlifting and Paralympic Swimming teams, as well as the Russian Diving team for training camps.
In October 2017, we welcomed the French Open Water Swimming team. In July 2019, we welcomed the French Swimming, Diving, Open Water Swimming and Weightlifting teams for training camps. (* In July 2019, the OWS team trained in Hakusan City, but all other sports trained in Kanazawa.)
We also welcomed the Russian Diving team in February 2019, and we signed a convention with the French Handisport Federation to have training camps in Kanazawa in February 2020, at which time officials visited the pool’s installation.
We will keep in close contact with federations from both countries in order to prepare accordingly for the Olympic-Paralympic Games training camps in 2021.
It depends on the training schedule and conditions but there can be public training sessions or meet and greets organized. We will update this website with information if that is the case. (* The athletes’ training will always be put first, so we can’t guarantee that there will be any events held. Also, to reduce the risks of spreading COVID-19, events access may be restricted, thank you for your understanding.)
