US Paralympic Committee Urges IOC to Postpone Tokyo Games Over Athletes' COVID-19 Concerns
The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Games after a survey among athletes found they were concerned about the spread of COVID-19 and its impact on their ability to train
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th March, 2020) The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the 2020 Tokyo Games after a survey among athletes found they were concerned about the spread of COVID-19 and its impact on their ability to train.
On Monday, the USOPC surveyed over 1,780 athletes to gauge their thoughts on the upcoming Tokyo Olympics amid the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 65 percent of the respondents said their training had been severely impacted or that they could not train, and 25 percent reported they could not train at all. Less than 10 percent of respondents said they could continue their training as usual. A many as 68 percent of athletes said they did not think the Olympics could be fairly competed if continued as scheduled.
"Our most important conclusion from this broad athlete response is that even if the current significant health concerns could be alleviated by late summer, the enormous disruptions to the training environment, doping controls and qualification process can't be overcome in a satisfactory manner.
To that end, it's more clear than ever that the path toward postponement is the most promising, and we encourage the IOC to take all needed steps to ensure the Games can be conducted under safe and fair conditions for all competitors," the statement said.
The head of the IOC, Thomas Bach, said on Sunday that the organization would expedite consideration of possible scenarios and make a final decision on the Olympics within four weeks. A number of national Olympic committees called on the IOC to postpone the Games until next year.
On Monday, IOC member Dick Pound said in an interview with USA Today that a decision had been made to postpone the Games, which are slated to take place from July 24 to August 9.
The World Health Organization on March 11 declared the outbreak of the coronavirus disease a pandemic. According to the most recent statistics compiled by Johns Hopkins University, over 380,000 coronavirus cases and over 16,500 fatalities have so far been confirmed globally.