IOC Executive Board and Athletes' Commission discuss COVID-19 countermeasures for Tokyo Olympics
Nov 13, 2020
Lausanne [Switzerland], November 13 : The Executive Board (EB) and Athletes' Commission (AC) of the International Olympic Committee held a virtual joint meeting to discuss various topics, including the athlete experience and COVID-19 countermeasures at Tokyo Olympics.
With the health and safety of athletes being one of the key principles in the delivery of the Olympic Games, the IOC EB and AC discussed the importance of delivering the Games while preserving the athlete experience. In September, a series of measures were agreed upon by the IOC Coordination Commission and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee to make the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 fit for a post-corona world.
"The possible COVID-19 countermeasures necessary to protect the health of all Tokyo 2020 participants have been grouped into seven areas: travel/country access; physical distancing; personal protective equipment/cleaning; food and beverage; testing/tracking/isolating; information provision; and vaccines," IOC said in a release.
The IOC is working closely with the International Federations, National Olympic Committees and other event organisers in order to receive vital input as part of an ongoing review of the best practices and key learnings taken from the resumption of sporting events in Japan and around the world.
During the meeting, the Chair of the IOC AC, Kirsty Coventry, expressed the support of the Commission to deliver safe environment to all: "We are fully supportive that the most important point is to ensure that we can deliver the Olympic Games in a safe environment for all participants, in particular the athletes. The health and safety of athletes and Games participants has been quite rightly the key consideration every step of the way."
"We also appreciate that there is a need to be flexible in all other areas of requirements and operations, in order for the Games to be safe for everyone, and simply to allow them to take place. This means that athletes will have to be flexible, like everyone else, in their expectations regarding what would normally be in place at the Games," Coventry added.
IOC President Thomas Bach thanked the IOC AC for cooperating well and said: "The IOC Athletes' Commission is the only commission of the IOC which meets with the IOC EB directly. The athletes are part of every decision the IOC is taking by being represented on all the commissions, and also by having the Chair, Kirsty Coventry, as a full member of the IOC EB."
