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.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS