Olympic swimming champion Chalmers on the Tokyo Games: "A bit scary"

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Kyle Chalmers: "I don't train 40 hours a week to be the second best in the world"

Photo: FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT / AFP

Australian swimming Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers is worried about his trip to the Summer Games in Tokyo (July 23 to August 8) because of the corona pandemic.

"Of course it's a bit scary," Chalmers told his local newspaper Adelaide Advertiser before the Olympic eliminations in Australia, with a view to the situation in Japan. He is following the number of cases in Tokyo and it is good that they are falling. "But it is probably inevitable that the coronavirus will be in and around the Olympic Village and will also affect the Games to some extent."

The security measures planned by the Olympic organizers to contain the virus at the Games and the vaccinations planned for Australia's Olympic participants apparently do little to reassure the 22-year-old. The 100-meter freestyle champion from Rio de Janeiro 2016 fears that he will not be able to fully concentrate on his competition until the end of his mission: “My biggest fear is that I will make it through the heats and semi-finals, but then test positive and thus I am simply out of the final and have to stay in my bedroom for the next 14 days. "

The report did not reveal whether Chalmers has already been vaccinated or wants to be vaccinated. In any case, he feels ready for his title defense and the hoped-for showdown with US superstar Caeleb Dressel: »I don't train 40 hours a week to be the second best in the world. I'm training to be number one, so I'm definitely highly motivated to stay up there too. "

Most recently, the Olympic organizers abandoned their dogmatic determination to hold the Olympic and Paralympic Games for the first time. OK chief Seiko Hashimoto made the participation of a majority of countries a condition for hosting the major events on Thursday. “If many nations from all over the world get into serious situations and the delegations cannot come, we would not be able to hold the Olympics,” said Hashimoto, but at the same time made it clear: “Until such a situation occurs, the Games will not be canceled. ”However, there is currently no sign of such a trend.

The Olympic makers of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and in Japan had strictly adhered to the 2020 games postponed to the upcoming summer due to the pandemic in recent months.

A month ago, only Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga raised doubts about the implementation of the Olympic plans.

In parliament, the head of government gave the security of the population clear priority over the organization of the Olympic competitions in view of the continued serious situation in the country: "For me, the Olympic Games were never my top priority."

Japan continues to fight the fourth wave of the pandemic.

The number of vaccinations, with only a good three percent fully vaccinated residents, lags far behind in comparison with other industrialized nations.

sak / sid / AFP