There has never been a worse time to be an Olympic athlete.
Seriously, the environment to train, and be on top of your game physically and mentally during a pandemic that already moved the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to this summer is incredibly difficult for a number of reasons.
At the top of the list is the inability to know for certain if and when the Games will go on. They are scheduled to start in just over two months, but now a group of doctors in Japan are trying to yank the rug from underneath the athletes yet again.
An organization representing roughly 6,000 Japanese doctors came out and urged the IOC to cancel the Summer Olympics. The Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Yoshida Suga suggestion that.
Why would they want to cancel the Games this close to the Opening Ceremonies? According to the doctors, the city’s hospitals are already fairly full because of a coronavirus surge.
Here’s an excerpt from the letter the group sent to the PM.
“We strongly request that the authorities convince the IOC (International Olympic Committee) that holding the Olympics is difficult and obtain its decision to cancel the Games.”
About two weeks ago Japan announced a state of emergency in Tokyo because of the rise of COVID cases, but that is nothing new, and has happened numerous times in the past 14 months.
Also, Japan is way behind the eight ball when it comes to vaccinations. Reuters News Service reported that of the 126 million people living in Japan, less than four percent have been vaccinated.
So now there is a group of doctors in lock step with a poll released in April that said 72% of Japanese citizens want the games cancelled or postponed. It appears neither are going to get their wish unless something very dramatic happens in the next few weeks.
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