Tokyo Olympics organizers yesterday said that they were trying to improve conditions for athletes quarantined at the Games, following complaints over a lack of air, food and basic necessities while in isolation due to COVID-19 protocols.
Athletes and staff who test positive or are contact-traced are isolated in separate accommodation from their teams in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
Athletes have criticized the conditions there, with some, such as Dutch skateboarder Candy Jacobs, who was quarantined early in the Games, calling them “inhumane.”
Photo: AP
German independent elite athletes grouping Athleten Deutschland has urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to act.
“It ... appears grotesque that athletes who test positive have to spend their quarantine in prison-like conditions, while IOC members stay in expensive luxury hotels and are provided with high daily allowances,” said Maximilian Klein, Athleten Deutschland’s representative for international sport policy.
Among the biggest issues are a lack of fresh air and training facilities, the quality of food, small living quarters and an absence of basic amenities such as laundry.
“It’s unfortunately for all of us, but particularly also the athletes the extra measures that have to be taken in terms of isolation and we fully sympathize with everyone who’s had to go through this,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. “There are certain regulations that the Japanese health authorities imposed — we can’t do much about that — but there are things that can be done.”
Tokyo Games spokesman Masa Takaya said that organizers had provided more space for them outside their rooms, while teammates could bring food.
“The situation has been improved and we are trying to implement a more flexible approach to accommodate these positive cases,” Takaya said. “We would like to extend our sincere sympathies to them. It must be a heart-wrenching feeling” to test positive at the Olympics.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier