Takeda, Tsunekazu

Takeda Tsunekadu was born in Tokyo . The third (youngest) son of Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda (1909-1992), the second head of the house of Takeda-no-miya, and Sanjo Mitsuko (1915-2013). His maternal great-grandfather was Emperor Meiji . Tsunekazu Takeda and his son Tsuneyasu Takeda (born 1975) studied at Keio University and later taught there.

Tsunekazu Takeda has been an avid rider all his life. In the Japanese team, he competed at the Olympics in 1972 and 1976 , where he took 16th and 13th place, respectively. He later coached Japanese horsemen at the 1984 , 1988, and 1992 Olympics . The chef of the Japanese team at the Olympics in 2002 and 2004 ^[1] .

In 1987, Tsunekazu Takeda joined the Japanese Olympic Committee , and in October 2001 he was elected its chairman. He also served as vice president of the International Equestrian Federation (IPPE) from 1998 to 2002 , and was later appointed honorary vice president. In 1998, Takeda became the sports director of the organizing committee of the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano . He was also twice elected Vice President of the Asian Olympic Council in 2001 and 2011. As a member of the International Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda coordinated preparations for the 2010 , 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics ^[2] .

On March 16, 2019, Takeda Tsunekadu announced his intention to leave the post of head of the NOC of Japan in connection with corruption allegations from French law enforcement agencies, so as not to damage the country's national reputation on the eve of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. ^[3]