Coates served as chef de mission at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and said he had had a wonderful experience with a strong team.

"The Beijing Olympics came at a time when there was a significant emerging middle class with great improvement in standard of living, accommodation and housing, and also in China's technological advancement and city construction. I think it was an opportunity to show the world what China has achieved," he said.

Upon reviewing the construction for next year's Tokyo Olympics, the official said he was pleased with the preparation work.

"All the venues are on time. We are very impressed with the new Aquatics Center that we have visited. It will be finished in February next year," he said.

Apart from the venues, the official said his team had also covered many other details, such as transport, accommodation, logistics and catering.

As for his expectations for next year's Tokyo Games, Coates said that "this will be an athlete-oriented game." He pointed out that as the Olympic Games has grown tremendously, a big improvement in terms of gender equality is reflected.

"At the 1964 Games, 5,151 athletes participated and only 678 of them were female, whereas about 49 percent of the 11,090 athletes in the 2020 Games will be female," he said.

The official said the overall scale of next year's Games will also be twice the size of the 1964 Olympics. There will be 339 events across 33 sports in 2020, whereas in 1964, there were only 163 events across 19 sports, he said.

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