COVID-19 Impact: Japanese Olympic Committee calls for the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

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Japanese Olympic Committee’s board member Kaori Yamaguchi has now has asked for the Tokyo Olympics to be postponed because athletes are unable to practice and train adequately as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Kaori Yamaguchi is a bronze medal winner of Judo during the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988, has raised this concern and also plans to put this issue at the Japanese Olympic Committee Board Meeting scheduled for March 27. 

“The Olympics should not be held in a situation people in the world can’t enjoy. As far as I can tell, athletes in the United States and Europe are unable to train as normal and finish their qualifying matches.

That makes it impossible for them to appear well prepared at the start, with all the associated risks,” Yamaguchi said.

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The 55-year-old is one of the committee’s 23 executive board members along with the Japanese Olympic Committee’s Vice president Kozo Tashima. to argue her stance to the rest of the Japanese Olympic Committee meeting in favour of the athletes. 

“Unlike other sporting events, the Olympics symbolize the ideal that sports bring about world peace,” she told Nikkei, a newspaper in Japan. “We should not hold (the Olympics) if people across the world can’t enjoy themselves.” she said. 

The current veteran and the former athletes have voiced their concerns in the last few days, however, the IOC is yet to make an announcement on conducting the Olympics, leaving some athletes in a reel. Others have expressed concerns about maintaining their training regimens while following the quarantine and also social distancing guidelines set by their local governments. 

“Even if they said, ‘We’re going to postpone this two years,’ then I know,” gymnast Colin Van Wicklen told USA TODAY Sports.

“Then I can say ‘OK, I don’t have to stress the next three weeks trying to work out.’ I can self-quarantine and be safe and do everything they’re asking.” 

Colin Van Wicklen concluded.