{"id":422713,"date":"2020-03-16T05:36:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-16T12:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=422713"},"modified":"2020-03-18T13:48:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T20:48:37","slug":"600-chinese-olympic-athletes-training-in-coronavirus-containment-in-paris-up-to-departure-for-tokyo-2020-claims-ioc-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/600-chinese-olympic-athletes-training-in-coronavirus-containment-in-paris-up-to-departure-for-tokyo-2020-claims-ioc-member\/","title":{"rendered":"600 Chinese Olympic Athletes Training In Coronavirus Containment In Paris Up To Departure For Tokyo 2020, Claims IOC Member"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s John Coates, the International Olympic Committee<\/strong> member in self-isolation after returning home from a trip to Europe, has claimed that 600 Chinese athletes are in a contained environment in Paris training for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games<\/strong> at what the World Health Organization (WHO)<\/strong> has declared the heart of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic<\/strong>\u00a0– Europe.<\/p>\n

France is among European nations locking down their countries as the virus takes hold and the French death count rose by 29 on Sunday to 120. France, which has closed its borders, is believed by experts to be around three weeks behind the same curve as Italy travelled on the way to the country’s effective closure.<\/p>\n

In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> <\/a>in which Coates contradicts fellow IOC member Dick Pound and the IOC President Thomas Bach<\/a> when he claims that there is no May deadline for deciding the fate of the Tokyo 2020 Games, the top Olympic official from Australia says:<\/p>\n

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“The Chinese are in various parts of Europe and the last I heard is they\u2019re bringing them all together in a university in Paris where they\u2019ll be fully contained, 600 of them, and they will go straight from confinement there, straight into Japan. They won\u2019t put anyone on a plane who has got coronavirus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re all basically in serious lockdown. There will be instances … some athletes will catch it. Let\u2019s hope it\u2019s not serious and you\u2019ve got your two weeks to get through it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The reference is at the tail end of an article focussing on the apparent row at the helm of the IOC over a suggested <ay deadline for deciding whether the Games in Tokyo will go ahead on the planned Opening date of July 24.<\/p>\n

After reporter Chris Barrett<\/em> notes: “Beyond qualifying, the task of getting athletes from the around the world into Japan without further spreading coronavirus appears momentous but Coates remains confident.,” Coates says:<\/p>\n

\u201cJapan has got some restrictions on athletes but I know that the Chinese are probably the best organised. All the big NOCs [national Olympic committees] know where their athletes are and are preparing.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He then reveals that “The Chinese are in various parts of Europe and the last I heard is they\u2019re bringing them all together in a university in Paris where they\u2019ll be fully contained, 600 of them, and they will go straight from confinement there, straight into Japan”.<\/p>\n

That will doubtless cause questions to be raised in France, which is struggling with its own coronavirus crisis, has locked down sport and closed pools and other facilities across the country, begging such questions as: where are the 600 Chinese athletes training; are they safe; how are they managing to access training facilities, food, what will happen to them if one athlete tests positive for COVID-19 and… when did they arrive, given that China has long had strict \u00a0travel restrictions in place and Europe is now in lockdown?<\/p>\n

Extraordinary Events In Swimming History:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy, France, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil and Japan have all had major meets affected by the coronavirus pandemic, while in the United States, the NCAA Championships have been cancelled and USA Swimming has imposed a 30-day suspension on all events, while Canada is considering what to do about its Olympic trials early next month. In Italy, where swimmers are struggling to maintain normal routines, can\u2019t get to practice and in some cases find pool time, a #stopolympics campaign was launched by the Nuoto\u00a0website<\/a> calling on solidarity among swimming nations to recognise that Olympic preparations have been blown off course and that it would be in the interests of fairness to postpone the Games for a time of calm beyond the coronavirus crisis.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Our coverage:<\/em><\/p>\n