The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should review plans to go ahead with the Tokyo Olympics during the coronavirus pandemic and ensure dialogue with athletes, the Sport and Rights Alliance (SRA) and the World Players Association (WPA) said on Saturday.
Professional athletes could be particularly vulnerable to falling seriously ill with the new coronavirus, the head of a global union representing them said on Thursday. Brendan Schwab, the executive director of the World Players' Association, added that some players are being asked to sign away rights that would normally give them legal and financial protection should they fall ill.
Calls from athletes and federations for a delay in the Games, which is scheduled to run from July 24 to Aug. 9, have intensified as the flu-like virus has brought sport to a grinding halt across the world.
Professional athletes across the world should not be rushed back to action once the coronavirus pandemic subsides, and they must have a strong say in determining the conditions for their return, the World Players Association said on Tuesday. Sports competitions around the world have come to a screeching halt this year as the virus spreads across the globe, starving clubs, leagues and federations of revenues and putting tens of thousands of professional athletes on hold.
The US track and field federation joined another leading US Olympic sport, USA Swimming, in seeking a delay to the Games. Neither US Olympic officials nor the IOC were immediately available for comment on USATF's request.
The research suggests that due to strenuous exercise, elite athletes are more likely to inhale virus particles and direct them to the lower areas of the lung.
Pressure had been building on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its president, Thomas Bach, with some athletes and sporting bodies angry that a seemingly inevitable decision had taken so long.
A one-day match pitting the game's best cricketers against the Australia is being mooted to raise funds for the tsunami victims.
It is the first break in the four-year cycle for the summer Olympics since the 1940 and 1944 Games were cancelled because of World War Two.
Soccer's governing body FIFA has agreed to ban the third-party ownership (TPO) of players, its president Sepp Blatter said on Friday, seven years after first promising to outlaw the practice.
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