Areas within the nation of Japan, host of this summer’s Olympics, are reportedly pulling out of hosting visiting nations’ athletes in the lead-up to the Games.
Per an article in The Daily Mail, 40 of the 500 towns registered to accommodate competitors have canceled arrangements, citing the move as a precaution against potentially overburdening medical resources with any COVID-19-related cases.
Included in the aforementioned number is the prefecture of Niigata, which was set to host Swimming Australia’s Olympic squad. As we reported in 2017, the green and gold Dolphins 2020 Olympic swimming squad was set to call the Niigata Prefectural Nagaoka Indoor Swimming Pool located in Nagaoka, Japan home pre-Tokyo.
Per the report, the British Olympic team’s training bases of Yokohama, Kawasaki and Keio University have been assured they are still able to be stationed at the sites pre-Games.
Outside the pool, the U.S. track and field team has pulled out of pre-Olympic training in the Chiba prefecture, “because of concerns over athlete safety as the coronavirus pandemic continues around the world with no prospects of winding down.”
Per France 24, the USATF stated, “With the uncertainty surrounding competitions in 2020 and 2021, USATF provided domestic competitive opportunities… and encouraged Team USATF athletes to stay in the US and train,” it said.
According to Reuters, Japan reported more than 7,000 new infections on Wednesday, May 12th, with 969 cases in Tokyo.
We will continue to report if more swimming squads are impacted by this situation.
I don’t think Australia was going to stay there anymore anyway .. I think their plan was to stage camp in northern Queensland before flying straight for the games in Tokyo ..
Australia doesn’t really need a Japan base…..we are basically in the same time zone as Tokyo (re:jet lag problem) and Northern Queensland is just a 7 hour direct flight away from Cairns.
Flying 7 hours direct from Cairns gets you to Northern Queensland?
to Tokyo..!
Two weeks in Cairns then on to Tokyo I think, unless they have changed plans
Should work well.. easy flight from Cairns to Tokyo…