Osaka ‘not sure’ Olympics should proceed as doubts grow

JAPANESE superstar Naomi Osaka admitted she was “not really sure” the coronavirus-hit Tokyo Olympics should go ahead as doubts grew about the Games just weeks before the opening ceremony.

The four-time tennis Grand Slam winner joined fellow Japanese player Kei Nishikori in raising concerns, with Tokyo and other parts of Japan under a coronavirus state of emergency.

A top politician also warned that Japan still had to make a “careful decision” about whether to hold the Games, which have scant public support according to opinion polls.

Scrapping the 2020 Olympics, postponed last year as the pandemic advanced, is a concept that has never been gone away, despite repeated assertions from officials that they will proceed.

A survey by a leading Japanese daily released yesterday found 59% of respondents want the Olympics cancelled, underlining persistent public concerns over the risk of infections.

Osaka, Japan’s biggest sports star and a major gold-medal prospect, said “to be honest, I’m not really sure”, when asked if the Olympics should take place as planned.

“I’m an athlete, and of course my immediate thought is that I want to play in the Olympics,” the four-time Grand Slam winner told the BBC.

“But as a human, I would say we’re in a pandemic, and if people aren’t healthy, and if they’re not feeling safe, then it’s definitely a really big cause for concern.”

America’s Serena Williams said she was yet to commit to Tokyo. “I haven’t spent 24 hours without her (three-year-old daughter Olympia) so that kind of answers the question itself,” she said at the WTA tournament in Rome.

“I haven’t really thought much about Tokyo, because it was supposed to be last year and now it’s this year, and then there is this pandemic and there is so much to think about.”

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach yesterday was forced to cancel a visit to Japan planned for this month, after the state of emergency was extended last week.

Toshihiro Nikai, No. 2 in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Japan needed to take advice from “Olympic experts” before deciding whether to hold the Games.

“A careful decision will be necessary in the future,” he said, according to the news agency.

He was speaking after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who came to power in September, insisted he has “never put the Olympics first”, stressing his priority is “the lives and health of the Japanese people”. – AFP