July 24, (THEWILL) – In a swift reaction to scenes at Friday’s opening ceremony of the XXXII Summer Games where some unmasked athletes were captured in videos of the parade, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has warned it will take action against such “blatant” breaches of the COVID-19 rules in place at Tokyo 2020.”
There were no face coverings seen on most of the athletes and other officials from two former Soviet Union countries of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. While their contingents paraded the route at the event, some athletes, including Kyrgyzstan’s two flagbearers Kanykei Kubanychbekova and swimmer Denis Petrashov, and Tajikistan’s Tafur Rakhimov had no facemasks on throughout.
They were not the only defaulters as Pakistan’s two flagbearers, pistol shooter Khalil Akhtar and badminton player Mahoor Shahzad, were also spotted without masks during the Ceremony at the Olympic Stadium, while they observed their country’s parade.
The IOC guidelines in force at the ongoing Olympic Games mandate athletes to wear masks “at all times” and “in all locations” of the venues, “with the exception of training, competing, eating, drinking or during interviews”.
There are situations where athletes are allowed to remove their masks, such as when they are outdoors in areas where they are more than two meters apart from others. This was taking into consideration the Summer heat as a measure against heatstroke.
Christophe Dubi, the IOC Executive Director for the Olympic Games when he addressed the press after, did not mention any countries or athletes by name and refused to say whether disciplinary measures would be opened, but promised action would be taken in cases of severe rule breaches at the Games.
Addressing questions raised, Dubi said Chefs de Mission of teams competing at Tokyo 2020 had been reminded about wearing masks and other COVID-19 countermeasures prior to the Opening Ceremony as the necessity of the reality of the times cannot be overstated.
He said: “It is really important that we go on message constantly to remind people how important it is to follow the social distancing rules, to use hand gels and wear masks. This was repeated to the Chefs de Mission yesterday and we will continue to repeat this.
“If you have blatant behaviours that are absolutely unbearable, we will definitely take action but it starts with informing and repeating this information so we don’t see too many people without masks.”
The IOC and Tokyo 2020 are making moves so keep their promise of a safe and secure Games and insist that the guidelines have been designed to ensure the Games, pushed back to this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will neither endanger the Japanese public nor the athletes.
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.
