China offering Covid jabs for all competitors at Tokyo Games

China has made an astonishing offer to ensure all competitors at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer are vaccinated against Covid – but the British Olympic Association is likely to decline.

The International Olympic Committee startled sporting chiefs by announcing funding for the “kind offer” from a nation recently denounced for human rights violations. Beijing’s alleged mistreatment of Muslim Uighurs and crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong will almost certainly put off most Western nations from accepting the deal and sporting chiefs in Britain appear set to keep faith with the domestic roll-out.

The BOA said the offer was “welcome news for the wider Olympic movement”, but Andy Anson, its chief executive, has repeatedly said he would not ask for athletes to be fast-tracked. Figures within Whitehall are also increasingly confident athletes can be vaccinated without needing to jump the queue thanks to rapid progress across the UK. “We are waiting in line patiently,” added a senior source at Team GB.

The agreement with China was announced by IOC president Thomas Bach after The Daily Telegraph disclosed in January he had been working with a World Health Organisation-backed Covax project, which is accelerating distribution to developing nations. The agreement comes amid an ethical debate over prioritising competitors, but the IOC has said athletes would not be fast-tracked over vulnerable groups.

Bach said: “The IOC has received a kind offer from the Chinese Olympic Committee, the host of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. The offer is to make additional vaccine doses available to participants for Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022.”

The IOC will pay for the additional doses, Bach added.

“This is welcome news for the wider Olympic movement,” the BOA said. “Our position remains that priority should still be with the most vulnerable in our society and that there will come an appropriate time, hopefully ahead of the Olympic Games, when the athletes can be considered for vaccination.”

The IOC has denied reports that the Games are set to be behind closed doors.