July 19, (THEWILL) – There is no COVID-19 news free day for the organisers of the Olympics of Tokyo, Japan with a set of athletes testing positive inside the Olympics Village itself and the Czechs have seen a couple of infections among athletes.
On Monday, it became apparent that Czech beach volleyball player Ondřej Perušič will miss his opening match at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Indeed, Perušič could be ruled out of the entire event after he became the third athlete in the Village to test positive for COVID-19.
According to Olympic officials in the Chiba prefecture, another unnamed teenage female member of the United States gymnastics team also tested positive at a pre-Tokyo 2020 training camp in tests conducted there.
Three more cases have been reported by organisers in Monday’s update of infections in Japan among people connected to the Games since July 1.
In total, the Czech player and the US gymnast bring the total number recorded in that period to 60. Due to a 24-hour lag in reporting infection numbers, they are not included in what will be the case after Monday’s updates.
The loss of Perušič left the Czech Olympic Committee (COC) seeking a postponement of Perušič and partner David Schweiner’s first game of the men’s tournament on July 26. Martin Doktor, the COC Chef de Mission said they were looking at “other options that would allow the boys to enter the tournament later, according to the rules.”
According to the COC Perušič had no symptoms and had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 until he returned a positive result in Tokyo. The athlete himself took it positively when he said: “I don’t see it as the end of the world yet and I definitely don’t take it tragically just because it was far more important for me personally that we managed to qualify for the Olympics and that I proved to myself that I have it.”
As THEWILL trusted earlier, an unnamed member of the Czech delegation also returned a positive test for COVID-19.
Inside the Olympics Village, the pair of South African footballers Thabiso Monyane and Kamohelo Mahlatsi became the first Tokyo 2020 athletes to test positive for COVID-19, together with a video analyst working with the team.
In keeping with the COVID-19 protocols, the three of them and a total of 21 people, that contact-tracing identified as close contacts, have been isolated. They must eat in their rooms, train separately from other team-mates, take dedicated transport and undergo daily COVID-19 while being quarantined. They will hopefully still compete if there are no further infections in the squad.
In the ongoing updates, athletes from Uganda, Israel and Serbia have tested positive for COVID-19 since arriving in Japan for the Games but have not entered the Olympics Village. A positive case in their contingent resulted in the delay of the Refugee Olympic Team’s travel itinerary to Tokyo.
In all of these, the IOC insists that the recent positive cases show the rules in place at the Games are working to backup its earlier claim that the Village would be the “safest place” in the Japanese capital.
Also corroborating the claims of the IOC, Seiko Hashimoto, the President of Tokyo 2020 organising committee said organisers have “a plan in place” to respond to any COVID-19 outbreak at the Village, re-echoing the assurance of IOC Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi that transmission between the various groups there was “almost impossible”.
The hope is that these assurances keep the fears of locals in check, do not discourage the athletes and do not give the corps of the Japanese medical professionals cause to worry as more athletes arrive for the Summer Games.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
