Athletes are being forced to take health risks, Olympic pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi said, as competitors started to speak out about holding the Tokyo Games amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stefanidi and British heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson voiced concerns after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday said that it was “fully committed” to running the Games as scheduled from July 24.
An IOC member called the body’s stance “insensitive and irresponsible,” saying that athletes were facing “anxiety and heartbreak” as they try to train during the virus emergency.
Photo: Reuters
Stefanidi, one of Greece’s most prominent athletes, was scheduled to hand the ceremonial flame to Japanese officials before the Greek leg of the torch relay was scrapped due to COVID-19.
“The IOC wants us to keep risking our health, our family’s health and public health to train every day?” Stefanidi said on Twitter. “You are putting us in danger right now, today, not in 4 months.”
Olympic qualifying tournaments are among the swath of sports events that have been canceled or postponed, with only 57 percent of athletes booking their places so far.
“It’s unbelievable,” Stefanidi said. “What about team sports that have to train together? What about swimming? What about gymnastics that they touch the same objects?”
“There is zero consideration of the risk they are putting us in right now,” she added.
Johnson-Thompson, the world heptathlon champion, slammed the IOC for telling athletes to train “as best they can,” saying that it was at odds with stringent government health measures.
“I feel under pressure to train and keep the same routine which is impossible,” Johnson-Thompson wrote on Twitter. “It’s difficult [to] approach the season when everything has changed in the lead-up apart from the ultimate deadline.”
Doubts are increasingly being expressed about holding the Olympics on time. An Olympic gymnastics qualifier in Tokyo, doubling as a test event, yesterday became the latest competition to be canceled.
A day earlier, the deputy head of the Japanese Olympic committee said that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
However, the IOC insisted that “there is no need for any drastic decisions at this stage,” saying that “any speculation at this moment would be counterproductive.”
Hayley Wickenheiser, a Canadian IOC member with four ice hockey gold medals, said that “this crisis is bigger than even the Olympics.”
“From an athlete perspective, I can only imagine and try to empathize with the anxiety and heartbreak athletes are feeling right now,” she said in a statement.
“The uncertainty of not knowing where you’re going to train tomorrow as facilities close and qualification events are canceled all over the world would be terrible if you’ve been training your whole life for this,” she said.
“I think the IOC insisting this will move ahead, with such conviction, is insensitive and irresponsible given the state of humanity,” she added.
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