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France 24
France 24
Politics

Japan's bike samurais gear up for Olympics

FOCUS © FRANCE 24

Frenchman Benoît Vêtu is the head coach of the Japanese national track cycling team. After winning the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics with the Chinese women's sprint team, he will try to reproduce the feat with the Japanese team – this time at the Tokyo Olympics, which will start on July 23. Vêtu is just one of the foreign coaches recruited at considerable expense by the Japanese to shine in Tokyo. We profile the man as well as the sport of keirin, a cycling track event which is highly popular in Japan and which generates large sums of money thanks to betting.

Programme prepared by Jennie Shin.

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