Speaking with The Sydney Morning Herald from Switzerland prior to two weeks of quarantine upon returning home, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates revealed that China is among the “best organized” National Olympics Committees at this point in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coates said that Chinese athletes are currently around Europe and that they will all be convening at a Paris university, then going straight from there to the Olympics.
“The Chinese are in various parts of Europe and the last I heard is they’re bringing them all together in a university in Paris where they’ll be fully contained, 600 of them, and they will go straight from confinement there, straight into Japan. They won’t put anyone on a plane who has got coronavirus,” Coates said, according to the Herald.
China had had the most COVID-19 cases at over 80,000 (with nearly 70,000 already recovered), and is where the outbreak first came to international recognition.
Coates added that all Olympic committees “know where their athletes are.”
“They’re all basically in serious lockdown. There will be instances … some athletes will catch it. Let’s hope it’s not serious and you’ve got your two weeks to get through it.”
Coates also refuted fellow International Olympic Committee vice president Dick Pound‘s February comments that indicated a decision to cancel or postpone the Games would need to be made in May.
“The IOC didn’t recognise any dates that Dick came up with and I think Dick backed off that as well. It’s all proceeding to start on the 24th of July,” Coates said.
“It’s never been the IOC’s position. It was Dick’s idea. There is four months to go. Despite a bit of personal inconvenience, I’m very happy that countries are taking these steps that clearly some of the European countries should have taken earlier.”
“Dick Pound”
Taking this decision in May makes sense – should be obvious by then whether they can occur ~ as planned.