GB ‘sadness’ at closed-doors Olympics

BRITISH Olympic boss Andy Anson has expressed his ‘sadness and regret’ that the Tokyo Olympics will now take place behind closed doors.

It was confirmed yesterday that athletes would be competing in empty stadiums in two weeks’ time after organisers banned spectators in Tokyo because of rising Covid cases.

The decision came on the same day Team GB announced they were sending 376 athletes to the Games, their largest overseas delegation, while UK Sport predicted they would win between 45 and 70 medals. ‘We have a lot of sadness and regret around that decision,’ said Anson.

‘Everyone who gets to this level of elite sport would want to compete in front of full, cheering crowds.

‘But over the last 18 months the athletes have got used to performing in front of empty stadiums, so it’s not going to be a surprise in that regard.

‘They’ve got to just switch into a different mode, so that they can still compete to their best of ability whatever the conditions. What they’re doing is still going to be broadcast all around the world and the excitement in people’s living rooms will be still very, very real.’

A fourth state of emergency was declared in Tokyo yesterday, forcing organisers to rip up their previous spectator policy, announced only last month, of venues being at 50-per-cent capacity with a maximum of 10,000 domestic supporters.

Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike described the decision to ban fans as ‘heartbreaking’, with the Tokyo 2020 organising committee now facing a loss of up to £580million from ticket sales.

The move behind closed doors has led to some questioning the point of the Games, but Anson said: ‘What we care most about is that these athletes who train so hard to get their chance to compete at the very pinnacle of their sport. To pull that away now would be outrageous.’

Anson, though, acknowledged that ‘it is a definitely a possibility that any athlete unfortunately gets Covid’ in Tokyo and would therefore have to miss their event.

Team GB’s final squad of 376 is five more than they sent to Barcelona 1992 and is made up of more females than males — 201 to 175 — for the first time. The oldest athlete is 54-year-old equestrian rider Carl Hester, who is 42 years older than the youngest, skateboarder Sky Brown.