Olympics
Uganda team coach in Tokyo had Delta coronavirus variant
A member of the Ugandan Olympic team who tested positive for the coronavirus upon arrival in Japan had the Delta variant, Japan’s Olympics minister said on Friday (June 25), adding to concern the Games – less than a month away – may trigger a new wave of infections.
A coach in the African nation’s delegation tested positive after arriving Japan on Saturday, while a second member, an athlete, tested positive on Wednesday after arriving in the team’s host city of Izumisano, officials said previously.
Olympics Minister Tamayo Marukawa told a news conference that the person who arrived on Saturday had been found to have the highly infectious Delta variant and that an analysis was also being conducted on the second confirmed case, NHK public TV reported.
Marukawa said she would consult other ministries and liaise with those on the ground about what steps were needed, NHK said.
The handling of the case has sparked criticism from local officials and experts, and fuelled concerns about what lies ahead.
Although one member tested positive for the virus at the airport, the rest travelled to the host town in a bus, accompanied by three city officials, an Izumisano official said. Those people were only designated “close contacts” days later.
Osaka Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura told reporters that Olympics delegations should be held at or near the airport if a member tested positive upon arrival. Izumisano city is in Osaka prefecture.
“It would be tough to apply this to the general public but with athletes’ groups it’s clear” they are close contacts, he said. “I think we should learn from this case as we head into the Games in earnest.”
The case “clearly shows a lack of basic risk mitigation measures based on best available evidence,” said Kenji Shibuya, former director of the Institute of Population Health at King’s College London.
Japan has not suffered the explosive outbreak of the virus seen elsewhere but has only recently emerged from a fourth wave of infections.
A decline in the pace of new cases and a pick-up in the vaccination rollout prompted authorities to ease a state of emergency in Tokyo and eight other prefectures on Sunday.
But experts are worried about a renewed rise in cases in Tokyo as well as about the spread of more highly transmissible variants. Tokyo recorded 570 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, up from 452 the same day a week earlier.
Japan’s government and organisers have vowed to make the Games, which begin on July 23, “safe and secure”. But many Japanese remain sceptical about the possibility of holding even a scaled-down Games safely during the pandemic.
Organisers have excluded foreign spectators and limited the number of domestic ones for the event. Alcohol, high-fives and talking loudly will also be banned at stadiums.
Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, the government’s pointman on the pandemic response, said authorities needed to keep the Delta variant in mind, given the experience in the United States and Britain, where it spread rapidly. He said it currently accounted for 3 per cent of new cases in Japan.
“Considering that the Delta variant will spread… it is important to continue strong measures,” he told reporters.
Nishimura said stronger steps would be taken if infections spread to a “certain degree” or hospitals were strained but a fresh state of emergency would not be immediately imposed.
Some areas including Tokyo remain under “quasi-emergency” restrictions, including limits on the sale of alcohol at eateries. A ban might need to be reimposed, Nishimura said.
-Reuters
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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