Preparations for the Tokyo Summer Olympics are continuing as scheduled, with all athletes allowed to choose whether to participate due to the threat posed by COVID-19.
Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群), a consultant with the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee, said that preparations are still under way for the nation’s delegation, because there has been no official statement about the Olympics being delayed or canceled.
However, athletes would have to decide for themselves if they want to participate in the event and would not be pressured, he said.
Sun made the remark after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday held a teleconference with Asia’s 45 national Olympic committees.
IOC president Thomas Bach said in the meeting that a responsible attitude toward disease prevention would be adopted, taking athlete safety as its core consideration.
The IOC would work with the WHO and the Tokyo Games organizing committee, as well as the governments of Tokyo and Japan, to monitor and curb the spread of the coronavirus, he said.
Bach has also spoken by telephone with 220 athlete representatives worldwide to emphasize that the well-being of athletes is the primary consideration and that financial reasons are not the motivation to go ahead with the Olympics.
As the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc worldwide, with entire cities locked down and major sporting events canceled, there has been increasing pressure on Tokyo Games organizers and a growing number of athletes have expressed concerns about plans to go ahead with the Olympics.
The Nikkei Asian Review yesterday reported that Japanese Olympic Committee board member Kaori Yamaguchi has raised concerns and called for the event to be postponed.
Yamaguchi, a judo bronze medalist at the 1988 Seoul Games, was quoted as saying that the IOC is putting athletes at risk by asking them to train as usual during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, Spanish Olympic Committee president Alejandro Blanco said in a statement that his country’s athletes would be at a disadvantage if the Olympics are not postponed due to the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak in Spain.
Spain has the second-most coronavirus infections in Europe — after Italy — with 18,077 confirmed as of Friday and more than 10,000 new infections recorded from Monday to Thursday, WHO data showed.
Spain has had a total of 831 deaths from the disease, the data showed.
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