Tokyo Olympics hit by rising Covid cases and scandals days before opening

Tokyo’s dreams of preparing smoothly for Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony have been shattered by a record number of Covid-19 infections, an alleged rape, a harassment scandal and a weightlifter. disappeared.

Just four days before the start of what the head of the International Olympic Committee has described “The most complex” Games organized never, organizers said 55 people had tested positive for the virus since July 1.

Problems have erupted as a result of one chain of mishaps for the Tokyo 2020 games beyond the pandemic, including corruption and sexism scandals, the withdrawal of original plans for the national stadium and fears that the ferocious summer heat it could endanger the lives of participants.

Among those who have tested positive in Covid-19 are athletes and officials, as well as media and contractors, groups that will create a planned entry into Japan of more than 56,000 people before and during the games.

Two South African footballers tested positive on Sunday, becoming the first Olympic Village athletes to contract the virus. The British Olympic Association also confirmed that six athletes and two staff members of its athletics team were isolated after a positive Covid case on their flight to Japan. Coco Gauff, the American tennis player, he said on Twitter that he would not participate in the Games after giving positive.

The increase in the number of athletes who have canceled their attendance or have been forced to spend long periods of quarantine just as the games begin has reinforced the concern that sports competition she will be very committed by the pandemic.

Seiko Hashimoto, chairman of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee, said at a weekend press conference that organizers would step up measures to prevent Covid clusters.

Public opposition Games remain high and the weekend was hampered by intense television coverage of foreign visitors related to the Olympics who broke the restrictions, and some people were seen drinking outside the designated areas.

Antipathy to the event widened over the weekend after the arrest of a member of Uzbekistan’s Olympic staff on charges of serious sexual assault on a Japanese teammate.

Separately, four British and American contractors work as gaming electricians they were arrested this month for drug charges.

Japan has introduced increasingly complex guarantees in its efforts to get the preparations for the games, which have already been postponed for a year. Almost all events will be held without spectators and life in the Olympic Village will be governed by a strict regime of regular testing and isolation.

IOC President Thomas Bach said last week that there was a “zero” risk of visiting athletes transmitting infections to the general Japanese population, comments that were widely criticized for being overconfident in the face of growing outbreaks.

Outbreaks of pre-Olympic problems included the resurgence of a 1994 magazine interview with Keigo Oyamada, the composer known as “Cornelius,” whose music is pivotal for Friday’s opening ceremony. In the interview, Oyamada, 52, boasted of humiliating and intimidating a student with a disability while at school.

Oyamada he apologized in a statement posted online, but has refused to leave office so close to the showcase event.

Separately, local authorities in central Japan are looking for Julius Ssekitoleko, the Ugandan weightlifter who disappeared from his team’s training camp after leaving a note saying he wanted to find work in the country. The 20-year-old athlete was unable to qualify for the games and was expected to return to Uganda this week.