Olympics
TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS: ATHLETES WORRIED ABOUT HEAT AND WATER CONDITIONS
BY MATHEW SMITH
International Swimming Federation (FINA) officials have vowed to monitor the water conditions in Tokyo after several athletes voiced concerns following the marathon swimming test event at the 2020 Olympic venue on Sunday.
Despite the event at Odaiba Marine Park, part of the “Ready Steady Tokyo” series of test runs, starting at 7am, the temperature was already over 30 degrees Celsius in the Japanese capital city.
A total of 57 people have died across Japan as a result of a heatwave between July 29 and August 4 and the country’s main broadcaster NHK reports another 18,347 people have been taken to hospital, with temperatures remaining above 31 degrees Celsius since July 24.
“That was the warmest race I’ve ever done,” three-time Olympic medallist Oussama Mellouli from Tunisia told Agence-France Presse (AFP).
“It felt good for the first 2km then I got super overheated.”
FINA rules state that athletes cannot race in open water swimming events when the water temperature is higher than 31 degrees Celsius.
FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu promised they would continue to examine how to best ensure athlete well-being, and said the start time in the Olympic event could be moved even earlier.
“Based on this information, we will decide the time the event will start,” he said.
“Could be 5am, could be 5:30am, can be 6am, can be 6:30am – depends on the water temperature.
“Working with a specialised company like we are going to do here in Tokyo, we will have the right information to take the right decision.”
The water temperature was high, so I’m a bit concerned about that,” Japanese swimmer Yumi Kida told AFP.
She also told reporters that the water was “a little stinky, and the clarity was not very good so I really want to improve the quality”.
Water quality at Odaiba Marine Park, which will also host the swimming leg of the Olympic triathlon, had previously been a concern after worries it would not meet FINA’s health standards.
FINA and the International Triathlon Union had raised concerns in 2017 after test results showed levels of E. Coli up to 20 times above the accepted limit, and faecal coliform bacteria seven times higher than the permitted levels.
Those worries have been allayed in recent months with the introduction of underwater filters, and FINA Medical Committee member David Gerrard told reporters that disease was now a lesser worry.
“What we have had are readings from the last month, daily readings that have given us very clear indications of the water quality, which has been good,” Gerrard said.
A total of 35 athletes, 22 men and 13 women, took part in the test event.
Both races were contested over five kilometres, half the Olympic distance of 10km.
Tokyo 2020 told insidethegames that the event was for operational testing purposes, and therefore no results were issued.
– insidethegames
Athletes at the Milano Cortina Winter Games have raced through their free condom supply ahead of Valentine’s Day, leaving dispensers empty on Saturday, with more than a week of competition remaining.
According to a report by Reuters, organisers had distributed around 10,000 condoms across the city and mountain accommodation sites, continuing a long-standing Olympic tradition aimed at promoting safe relationships among competitors living in close quarters.
By Saturday, however, supplies had run out — adding Milan to a growing list of Olympic hosts where demand has comfortably exceeded expectations.
“Clearly, this shows Valentine’s Day is in full swing at the village,” International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a press conference. “Ten thousand have been used — 2,800 athletes — you can go figure, as they say.”
Adams added with a smile: “It is rule 62 of the Olympic Charter that we have to have a condoms story. Faster, higher, stronger, together.”
Milano Cortina organisers later acknowledged that stocks had been depleted due to “higher-than-anticipated demand,” but assured that additional supplies were already on the way.
“Additional supplies are being delivered and will be distributed across all Villages between today and Monday,” organisers said in a statement. “They will be continuously replenished until the end of the Games to ensure continued availability.”
The unexpected shortage also surprised some athletes.
Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo said he had only just heard about the situation. “I just saw that this morning. I was, like, shocked as everyone else,” he said.
Mialitiana Clerc, an alpine skier representing Madagascar, noted that boxes once placed at building entrances were quickly emptied.
“There were a lot of boxes at the entrance of every building where we were staying, and every day, everything had gone from the boxes,” Clerc said. “I already know that a lot of people are using condoms, or giving them to their friends outside of the Olympics, because it’s a kind of gift for them.”
While medals remain the official measure of achievement at the Games, the empty dispensers suggest that the social side of the Olympics is also proceeding at full pace.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday awarded a top state honour to an Olympic skeleton racer who was disqualified from the Winter Games for wearing a helmet commemorating athletes killed in the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy, speaking to Vladyslav Heraskevych on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference, said he had great respect for “all the Olympians who supported you and your position.”
“Medals are important for Ukraine and for you, but it seems to me that the most important thing is who you are,” Zelenskiy said while presenting the racer with the Order of Freedom.
Heraskevych told the president the award was “huge” and that the athletes depicted on the helmet “deserve it even more. Because of their sacrifice, we can compete in the Olympics.”
Heraskevych, 27, was disqualified at the Winter Games in Italy on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that the helmet’s depiction of athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 breached rules on political neutrality.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed his appeal on Friday.
Heraskevych told reporters after the award ceremony that his disqualification was discriminatory as he had not violated the Olympic Charter, a document he said he “really valued.”
“But at the same time, I understand that this scandal has united people around the world about our problem and about the sacrifice of these great athletes, and I believe this goal is much more important than any medal,” he said.
Speaking before the CAS hearing earlier in the day, Heraskevych said his exclusion and rules imposed by the International Olympic Committee were “an instrument of propaganda for Russia. I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”
-Reuters
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Ukraine’s skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Milano Cortina Winter Games on Thursday over the use of a helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia, the International Olympic Committee said.
He was informed of his disqualification after a meeting with IOC President Kirsty Coventry early in the morning at the sliding venue.
His team said they would appeal the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Coventry told reporters she had wanted to meet the athlete face to face in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse.
“I was not meant to be here but I thought it was really important to come here and talk to him face to face,” Coventry told reporters.
“No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory.
“The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play. Sadly we’ve not been able to find that solution” she added, choking up.
“I really wanted to see him race, It’s been an emotional morning.”
The IOC offered him the opportunity to display his “helmet of remembrance” depicting 24 images of dead compatriots before the start and after the end of Thursday’s race at the Games, while also allowing him to wear a black armband while competing.
“I am disqualified from the race. I will not get my Olympic moment,” said Heraskevych.
The skeleton competition starts later on Thursday.
-Reuters
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