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Post by Admin on Jul 3, 2021 15:01:28 GMT
LIVE | Women 10M - Final | DGP 2021 - Bolzano
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Post by Admin on Jul 4, 2021 5:12:54 GMT
Athletes at Tokyo 2020 will be allowed to "express their views" before and after competing -- but not on the podium -- after Olympics chiefs relaxed some of the rules for protests at the event. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) released new guidelines Friday softening a long-standing ban on political protests at the Games. It means athletes will now be allowed to take the knee before play begins to highlight racial injustice, speak to the media and post online about their views, or wear clothing with a protest slogan at a press conference. But political statements during events, victory ceremonies and at the Olympic Village are still off the cards, the IOC said. Protests must not be "targeted, directly or indirectly, against people, countries, organisations and/or their dignity", the sporting body said in a statement. They also cannot be "disruptive" to other competitors, such as unfurling a flag as a team is being introduced. "The new guidelines are a result of our extensive consultation with the global athletes' community," Kirsty Coventry, chair of the IOC's athletes commission, said in a statement. "While the guidelines offer new opportunities for athletes to express themselves prior to the competition, they preserve the competitions on the Field of Play, the ceremonies, the victory ceremonies and the Olympic Village. "This was the wish of a big majority of athletes in our global consultation." It follows calls to relax rule 50.2 of the Olympic Charter, which states: "No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas." The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee had already promised not to sanction American athletes for "respectful" demonstrations in support of racial and social justice at the Tokyo Games. China, which will host the Beijing Winter Olympics in February, is facing scrutiny and boycott calls over several issues including the mass internment and other repression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and the clampdown on freedoms in Hong Kong.
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Post by Admin on Jul 7, 2021 5:09:43 GMT
The pressure of hosting an Olympics during a still-active pandemic is beginning to show in Japan.
The games begin July 23, with organizers determined they will go on, even with a reduced number of spectators or possibly none at all. While Japan has made remarkable progress to vaccinate its population against COVID-19, the drive is losing steam because of supply shortages.
With tens of thousands of visitors coming to a country that is only 13.8% fully vaccinated, gaps in border controls have emerged, highlighted by the discovery of infections among the newly arrived team from Uganda, with positive tests for the highly contagious delta variant.
As cases grow in Tokyo, so have fears that the games will spread the virus.
“We must stay on high alert,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters on July 1. Noting the rising caseloads, he said “having no spectators is a possibility.”
Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo organizing committee, agreed.
“It’s not that we are determined to have spectators regardless of the situation,” Hashimoto said Friday.
Organizers, the International Olympic Committee and others are expected to meet this week to announce new restrictions because of the fast-changing coronavirus situation.
Amid the criticism, Suga went to Tokyo’s Haneda international airport June 28 to inspect virus testing for arrivals. He vowed to ensure appropriate border controls as a growing number of Olympic and Paralympic athletes, officials and media begin entering Japan for the games.
On Monday, Tokyo confirmed 342 new cases, the 16th straight day of an increase. On Saturday, the capital reported 716 cases, highest in five weeks.
At a meeting of government advisers, experts warned of the possibility of infections exploding during the games, projecting daily caseloads exceeding 1,000. They said that would severely strain health care systems. In a worst-case scenario, there could be thousands of infections a day, causing hospitals to overflow, they said.
Ryuji Wakita, director-general of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and the head of a government COVID-19 advisory board, urged tighter border controls to detect and isolate infected arrivals at airports to prevent infections from spreading from Tokyo to the suburbs.
In a case that has shocked many in Japan, a member of the Ugandan team tested positive upon arrival June 19 at Narita International Airport and was quarantined there. The rest of the nine-member team was allowed to travel more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) on a chartered bus to their pre-Olympics camp in the western prefecture of Osaka.
Days later, a second member of the team from East Africa tested positive for the virus, forcing seven town officials and drivers who had close contact with them to self-isolate. The team itself is isolating at a hotel. Health officials said both infected Ugandans had the delta variant.
On Saturday, an athlete from Serbia also tested positive, causing the cancelation of his team’s training in the central city of Nanto. The government also has acknowledged that four other people arriving for the Olympics tested positive after entering the country earlier this year.
Experts say the cases show that Japan’s border health controls can be easily breached.
“There will be more people coming in. … We should use this as a lesson so that similar problems won’t be repeated elsewhere in Japan,” Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura told a recent regional governors’ meeting where leaders adopted an urgent request for tighter border controls.
Under revised guidelines on health measures sent to 530 municipalities hosting Olympic training, airport officials will isolate an entire group if any member tests positive, and they will stay at designated facilities until the athletes’ village opens July 12. Hosting towns can request guests to stop training and isolate themselves until they clear contact tracing and virus tests.
Dozens of municipalities in Japan have canceled their hosting arrangements because of virus worries, and many of them decided to use those facilities as vaccination sites.
In Tokyo, infections are spreading among the young and middle-aged who are largely unvaccinated. The more serious cases requiring hospitalization are gradually replacing the elderly, 26% of whom are now fully vaccinated, according to experts.
Japan’s fully vaccinated rate of 13.8% is slightly above the world average of 11.3% but low compared with 47.4% in the United States and 49.5% in the U.K., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Our World in Data.
Adding to the worries is uncertainty about Japan’s vaccination campaign.
Workplace inoculations began in mid-June, with thousands of companies applying to vaccinate employees. But the government then indefinitely halted taking new applications for workplace and large-scale vaccination sites due to tight vaccine supplies.
“The progress exceeded our expectations,” said vaccinations minister Taro Kono, noting that daily shots have likely reached 1.2 million or more. He said Japan will receive only one-third of the Pfizer-BioNTechPfizer vaccine supply it had hoped to receive by late July.
“Confusion is spreading across Japan,” because of this slowdown, said Kamon Iizumi, the Tokushima governor who also heads the National Governors’ Association.
A vaccination center in Kagawa had to suspend shots for 30,000 people, and plans were put on hold for 6,500 companies in Gifu, in central Japan. Other areas including Osaka, Kobe and parts of Tokyo also were forced to suspend planned vaccinations from this week.
“What a disappintment,” said Yukio Takano, head of Tokyo’s Toshima district. “We have worked so hard to accelerate the rollouts and now we have to put on the brakes. ... What was the rush for?”
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Post by Admin on Jul 8, 2021 19:49:24 GMT
Fans were barred from the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics that will open in two weeks, following a state of emergency issued on Thursday.
The ban was announced by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese organizers, reducing the games to a made-for-TV event.
Although widely expected, the move marked a sharp turnabout from just weeks earlier, when Olympic organizers said they aimed to hold the games with limited spectators.
"It is regrettable that we are delivering the games in a very limited format, facing the spread of coronavirus infections," Tokyo 2020 president Seiko Hashimoto said Thursday after talks between government officials, Tokyo organizers and Olympic and Paralympic representatives. "I am sorry to those who purchased tickets and everyone in local areas."
"Many people were looking forward to watching the games at the venues, but I would like everyone to fully enjoy watching the games on TV at home," Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said after the meeting.
Fans from abroad were banned months ago, and the new measures announced by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will mean venues around Tokyo -- indoor and outdoor -- will not have any fans at all.
The emergency declaration made for a rude arrival in Japan for IOC president Thomas Bach, who landed in Tokyo on Thursday just hours before the new measures were announced. He was to spend three days in self-isolation at the five-star hotel that lodges IOC members.
Suga said the state of emergency would go into effect Monday and last through Aug. 22. This means the Olympics, opening on July 23 and running through Aug. 8, will be held entirely under emergency measures. The Paralympics open on Aug. 24.
"Taking into consideration the impact of the delta strain, and in order to prevent the resurgence of infections from spreading across the country, we need to step up virus prevention measures," Suga said.
Suga, who had long favored fans in attendance, hinted at a no-fan Olympics in announcing the state of emergency.
"I have already said I won't hesitate to have no spectators," he added.
Just two weeks ago, organizers and the IOC allowed venues to be filled to 50% of capacity, but crowds not to exceed 10,000. The state of emergency has forced a late turnaround, which was always an option if cases rose.
The main focus of the emergency is a request for bars, restaurants and karaoke parlors serving alcohol to close. A ban on serving alcohol is a key step to tone down Olympic-related festivities and keep people from drinking and partying. Tokyo residents are expected to face stay-at-home requests and watch the games on TV from home.
"How to stop people enjoying the Olympics from going out for drinks is a main issue," health minister Norihisa Tamura said.
The present state of emergency ends Sunday. Tokyo reported 896 new cases on Thursday, up from 673 a week earlier. It's the 19th straight day that cases have topped the mark set seven days prior. New cases on Wednesday hit 920, the highest total since 1,010 were reported on May 13.
The no-fan atmosphere will include the opening ceremony at the $1.4 billion National Stadium, which is traditionally the most-watched event during the Olympics.
"It's not too late. Cancel or postpone it," said Yukio Edano, the head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition party to Suga's LDP.
The uptick in infections has also forced the Tokyo city government to pull the Olympic torch relay off capital streets, allowing it to run only on remote islands off the Tokyo coast. It's unclear how the torch will enter the stadium for the opening ceremony.
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Post by Admin on Jul 9, 2021 5:55:50 GMT
What Alex Morgan is accomplishing as a soccer mom isn’t anything new to the U.S. women’s national team. After all, she is the 13th player in team history who has had a child while performing for the best women’s soccer team in the world. “I’m here representing all the future moms and I’m trying to show that we can do it all as challenging as it is,” Morgan said on “Good Morning America” when the Olympic team was announced on June 23. “You have to figure it out you have to be mom and a professional athlete. There’s a lot of athletes going to Tokyo that are also fellow mom athletes and I’m excited to catch up with them and kind of just represent all the moms, soccer moms united.” Morgan went through a unique journey with her daughter Charlie Elena and husband, pro soccer player Servando Carrasco, to prepare for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. That path included trying to get back into prime shape and enduring the COVID-19 pandemic. When there seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel, Morgan and her family came down with coronavirus in December. In early 2020, Morgan’s pregnancy kept her out of the Concacaf Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament and the SheBelieves Cup. With Charlie due that May, it did not give Morgan much time to rediscover her world-class form. The pandemic hit, which turned life upside for everyone, forcing the Games to be postponed for a year. It gave the USWNT, especially its older players such as Megan Rapinoe and Carli Lloyd, a chance to recover from winning the 2019 Women’s World Cup. It gave Morgan an opportunity to regain her fitness that made her one of the most dangerous strikers in the world. “If the Olympics had already taken place, it would have been an incredible challenge, and I definitely wanted to do my best to be on the field at Tokyo in 2020,” she said earlier this year. “But I knew that honestly some of it really wasn’t up to me. It was up to just how my body was going to recover. ... I’m very happy that I was able to get an extra amount of time.” It also gave Morgan more time to be with Charlie, who entered the world on May 7, 2020, weighing in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces. “She made us wait longer than expected, but I should have known she would do it her way and her way only,” Morgan said in an Instagram post at the time. Morgan, who turned 32 on July 2, is following a USWNT tradition of soccer moms, which was started by Joy Fawcett and continued by the likes of Kate Markgraf, Christie Rampone and Amy Rodriguez over the years. Like many of her predecessors, Morgan has brought Charlie to games and training sessions. “I think it’s just so fun to have Charlie around and for her to get used to like having a lot of people around, and different people,” said Morgan, who added that it was important for Charlie “to be just around all these incredible women that are so strong.”
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