Opinion | Condoms, vaccines and sport: Tokyo Olympics sending mixed messages about coronavirus safety

How well are the Games prepared for a virus crisis when there is still an outbreak in Japan, the vaccination rates are low and athletes are asked to socially distance?

The rules about what sportspersons and officials can and can’t do at the Olympics to limit the spread of Covid-19 are constantly being revised

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A jogger runs past a newly installed Olympic rings in Yokohama, Japan. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:13am, 6 Jul 2021Updated: 12:02pm, 6 Jul 2021

The Tokyo Olympics are less than three weeks away. And the pressure is on for the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Japan was just coming out of its fourth Covid-19 wave with about 1,400 new cases every day, but numbers are now rising again. This could turn into a fifth wave.

Despite this, the games will go ahead. There will be limited numbers of local spectators allowed in venues filled up to 50 per cent capacity. This means 10,000 spectators wearing masks at all times and who are not allow to shout or cheer.

But these 10,000 spectators may be the least of the organisers’ worries.

About 90,000 international athletes, support teams and journalists are expected to arrive in Japan ahead of the games. And it is almost certain some will bring in the coronavirus.

Even full vaccination and pre-departure virus testing will not prevent this, as the recent Covid-19 case in one Ugandan team member showed. Now an athlete from that team, who was also vaccinated before departing, has caught the highly infectious Delta variant.