Oceania solidarity

THE Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) continues to draw from the time-tested Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship to demonstrate that solidarity is critical to surviving the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his Olympic Day message yesterday, ONOC president Dr Robin Mitchell, also underscored the importance of sport and physical activity to human life and good health.

“Never have these two basic things meant so much as in this current time of the coronavirus pandemic,” he said.

“Never have we been tested so hard as people, families, communities, workplaces and countries.

“Never have we been tested for our Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship.”

“We are now in the second year of the pandemic and through our engagement in sport and in the Olympic Movement, we have demonstrated that we can work in hope and solidarity.

“We can deliver together.” Dr Mitchell added that, we have athletes and teams from the Oceania in various stages of preparation and travel to Tokyo.

“A year ago, the resilience of our athletes, our NOCs and indeed, of us as a whole family of ONOC, was tested with the outbreak of COVID-19 and the postponement of the Games. Now, we’re barely weeks away from meeting each other - but in a different way.”

Dr. Mitchell thanked the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Australian Government for its timely support through the PacificAus Sports program which is seeing over 170 Olympics and Paralympics athletes from eleven Pacific nations prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympic Games.

The athletes from Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu are looking to secure a spot in their respective Olympic Games’ teams.