New date for Olympics ‘won’t satisfy everybody’, says Coe
Gobert, Utah Jazz clear of coronavirus
WORLD Athletics president Sebastian Coe admitted Friday that settling on a new date for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 will not satisfy everybody.
“All sports have made it pretty clear they have particular challenges at particular times of the year,” said Coe.
“We are probably not going to reach a solution that meets with the approval of every sport.
“But there does have to be an element of flexibility and there is going to be flexibility for the next two years.”
The 2021 World Athletics Championships, for example, are scheduled to be staged in August next year in Eugene, Oregon.
The 2020 Olympics, which were set for July 24-August 9 this year, were postponed until 2021 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) this week because of the coronavirus.
However, there is no definite date yet for the rescheduled Games with IOC chief Thomas Bach saying Tuesday the Olympics “must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021”.
There have been suggestions even that the rebooted
Olympics could be held in the spring and so allow athletes to avoid competing in the brutal heat and humidity of Japan’s summer.
“There are clearly demands for this decision to be taken as quickly as possible – the athletes and the federations need clarity,” added Coe.
“Once the decision is made, we can build [the calendars] around it.”
RUDY Gobert, the first NBA player to test positive for coronavirus, and all Utah Jazz players and staff have been cleared of coronavirus by the Utah Department of Health, the club announced Friday.
It was Frenchman Gobert testing positive for Covid-19 just before a game on March 11 at Oklahoma City that prompted the NBA to shut down the season, with his teammate Donovan Mitchell also testing positive.
Players and staff members completed a 14-day isolation and quarantine period and no longer pose a risk of infection to others, according to the state health department.
Clearance typically involves two negative tests for coronavirus that are taken at least 24 hours apart.
Jazz players had been in quarantine or isolation since March 11, staying in touch through video chat links.
Jazz players and staff will continue to practice distancing and limit time outside of their homes to essential activities, following guidelines from the NBA and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Jazz news comes a day after Detroit’s Christian Wood became the first publicly known NBA player to be cleared after testing positive for coronavirus on March 15.
Wood, the third NBA player to test positive after Gobert and Mitchell, had been matched against Gobert in a game against the Jazz just before the Frenchman’s positive test.