First positive virus test at Japan’s Olympic Village

TOKYO — The first resident of the Olympic Village has tested positive for COVID19, Tokyo Olympics organizers said Saturday.

Officials said it was not an athlete.

Tokyo officials including Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the organizing committee, confirmed the case and said the positive test was Friday. Organizers say for confidentiality purposes they can only offer a vague description and few details.

“In the current situation, that positive cases arise is something we must assume is possible,” said Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo organizing committee.

The person is identified simply as a “gamesconcerned personnel.” The person is also listed as a nonresident of Japan. Tokyo officials said the person was placed in a 14day quarantine.

The Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay will house about 11,000 athletes during the Olympics and thousands of other staff.

International Olympic Committed President Thomas Bach said this past week there was “zero” risk of athletes in the village passing on the virus to Japanese or other residents of the village.

Bach backs transgender

athlete: At a news conference Saturday, Bach expressed total support for transgender weightlifter Lauren Hubbard.

The 43yearold New Zealander is set to make history as the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Summer Games when she takes part in the women’s superheavyweight 87kg (192 pounds) weightlifting category.

Responding to a reporter from New Zealand who asked how the IOC determined whether it was fair for Hubbard to compete with cisgender women, Bach was clear.

“The rules for qualification have been established by the International Weightlifting Federation before the qualifications started, and these rules apply,” said Bach, who also noted rules are still being formulated from sport to sport and added “there is no onesizefitsall solution.” Racial incident? Germany’s men’s soccer team walked off the field in Wayahama, Japan, on Saturday during a preparation match for the Tokyo Games in response to alleged racist abuse from an opposing Honduras player toward German defender Jordan Torunarigha.

The game was stopped with five minutes remaining and with the score 11, the German soccer federation said.

“The German team left the field together after our player Jordan Torunarigha was racially insulted,” the federation said on Twitter.

Torunarigha’s club team, Hertha Berlin, responded by saying, “That’s the only correct decision!”

The friendly was Germany’s last exhibition before it plays Brazil in its Olympics opener in Yokohama on Thursday.

Torunarigha, 23, who is the son of former player Ojokojo Torunarigha of Nigeria, has faced racist abuse before. He was targeted with monkey chants by some Schalke fans in a German Cup game on Feb. 4, 2020. Schalke was fined 50,000 euros ($54,600) for its supporters’ abuse.