Personal Achievements and Goals
For ITU Women's Committee Candidacy

Tomoko Wada, Chair, ITU Women's Committee
Director, JTU International Department

 

 

With my original profession as interpreter/translator, I became involved in this great sport of triathlon in that function.

After my profession as an English teacher at a private school in Tokyo in 1980s, I landed the area of interpreting and translating work both as freelancer and a local government-contracted worker in 1990.

In due course of work, I became greatly involved in Olympic Movement. While doing numerous meetings in various fields including medicine, marketing, tourism, broadcasting, telecommunications, TOYOTA's Formula 1 Project, and press conferences for various sports, I also worked for the Olympic bid and the preparation process for the 1998 Nagano Olympic Winter Games, which started in 1990.

My duties included accompanying and scheduling for almost all IOC members who visited Nagano, Japan; attending countless functions with LOC, especially Governor of Nagano Prefecture; preparing news releases and working for media representatives; translating countless meetings between NAOC (Nagano Olympic Organizing Committee) and IOC logistics members including Mr. Gilbert Felli, then Sport Director. (His counterpart at NAOC was Mr. Tsunekazu Takeda, current JOC President and an IOC member.)

On the other hand, my first involvement in Triathlon was the 1st International Snow Triathlon in Togari, Nagano, Japan in 1992. This event lasted till 1995 and Les McDonald attended the event from 1993 onward. Interpreter's mission is to work as a back-stage supporter to help facilitate communication among people concerned, which should contribute to the successful organization of the event eventually. In this regard, this sporting event required me of plenty of attentions toward the weather conditions, safety confirmations, thorough briefings for both officials and athletes, medical preparations, and so forth. These experiences have benefitted me to work for many more triathlon events to come to date, including Ishigaki, ITU's longest-standing World Cup event. (I was also truly honored to be present at the first meeting for Les McDonald and Chiharu Igaya in decades in order to establish one consolidated triathlon governing body in Japan in 1993.)

Since elected Chair of ITU Women's Committee in 2008, I put my first priority on leading this committee to function as the body established by our esteemed pioneers in the foundation era of ITU.

Since the committee members first met in Gold Coast in 2009 and while serving in this

 

 

position, I believe that I have:
- organized regular conference calls;
- maximized members' attributes;
- set up our Terms and Regulations with support of members;
- contributed articles to the ITU official news letter to have our activities be more visible;
- planned and organized Women's Seminar in Budapest in 2010;
- planned and organized Women's Breakfast in Beijing in 2011;
- attended IOC World Conference on Women and Sport in L.A. in 2011 to learn more about how the world top governance sees the women's involvement and gender equality in sport as well as for further networking among women; and
- been proceeding with the preparation for the forthcoming Women's Forum and Award of Excellence taking place in Auckland this fall.

With all mentioned the above, my goals and aspirations for further assisting the ITU if I am elected member of ITU Women's Committee include:

- Taking actions to promote women's involvement in every phase in ITU, especially by increasing the ratio of women and kids athletes, and coaches, keeping in mind the threshold of 20% or even higher;
- Appealing to the general public and the IOC through various channels about the excitement of Mix relay, which will be a great base for gender equity;
- Further networking with women in focused regions where women are less involved.;
- Planning further productive seminars and breakfast meetings each in alternate year to inspire women and men with each other;
- Working with JTU officials as well as the ITU family to publicize and market this sport by taking every possible opportunities; and
- Collaborating with research institutes in Japan to search scientific analysis on women, sport and their lives.