Athletes train at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Kasai Canoe Slalom Centre on Saturday. Reuters
TOKYO: International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Thomas Bach on Saturday urged the Japanese people to get behind the Tokyo Olympics as the first coronavirus case hit the Games Village, prompting fresh jitters about the health risks posed by the giant event.
Bach, who has faced scattered protests since arriving in Japan, appealed to the public to throw their support behind the athletes despite fears of a spike in cases as thousands of international visitors arrive.
The IOC president said he was “very well aware of the scepticism” surrounding the postponed 2020 Games, which have attracted low opinion-poll ratings for months.
Reuters
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Athletics - World Athletics Championships - Doha 2019 - Men s 5000 Metres Heats - Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar - September 27, 2019 Britain s Andrew Butchart reacts REUTERS/Aleksandra Szmigiel
July 17 (Reuters) - Britain s 5,000 metres runner Andrew Butchart will compete in the Tokyo Olympics after UK Athletics handed him a suspended ban for saying he had changed the date on a COVID-19 test result to return to Britain from a meet before clarifying his remarks.
In a now-deleted episode of The Sunday Plodcast, Butchart had said there was a delay in getting his PCR test result before his flight home from the United States and he had changed the date on an old test as he prepared for check-in, the Times newspaper had reported. read more