Olympic sports slam Tokyo organizers over cuts at venues

GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) — Olympic sports leaders have criticized Tokyo Games organizers for cutting spending on how events will be presented at venues next year.

At the annual conference of Summer Games sports federations Tuesday, senior judo official Larisa Kiss said sports presentation — branding and dressing venues, plus informing and entertaining spectators — was “shockingly poor.”

Kiss also cautioned Tokyo’s delegation against a repeat of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics “where the look was quite cheap.”

Under pressure from the IOC to control spending, Tokyo has maintained an operating budget of $5.6 billion with cuts in some areas offsetting increased costs in others.

Tokyo official Hide Nakamura acknowledged that some organizing committee members think of sports presentation as “just a decoration.”