Masahiko Harada is pictured on March 27, 2021, in Tokyo's Minato Ward. (Mainichi)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Olympic ski jumping gold medalist Masahiko Harada was appointed general manager of Japan's 2022 Beijing Olympic team on Thursday by the Japanese Olympic Committee's board of trustees.

       Meeting for an extraordinary session, the trustees named the 53-year-old Harada, winner of team gold at the 1998 Nagano Olympics in Japan, general manager and Hidehito Ito, the 60-year-old chairman of the Japan Skate Federation's figure skating committee, chef de mission.

       Harada became a JOC director in June and has been a director at the Ski Association of Japan since 2015. Ito was Japan's general manager at both the 2014 Sochi Olympics and at Pyeongchang in 2018 and is chairing the JOC's Beijing Olympic project.

       The trustees also appointed Harada as Japan's chef de mission to December's Winter Universiade in Switzerland.

       The Beijing Olympics will open on Feb. 4 and run through Feb. 20.

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