According to Canadian athletes , Tokyo Olympic Village is different from the past
With the existence of dividers in the dining room, the traditional social atmosphere can’t be felt anymore. Daily testing and time limits are integral parts of the Tokyo Olympic
You might have heard about the different conditions of this Olympics. This difference is made due to the pandemic and dangerous situation of the world. Canadian athletes will face COVID-19 protocols and testing which are designed to make the Olympic games as safe as possible.
In the past Olympics, socializing and global camaraderie was the most memorable part of for the athletes buy because of COVID-19, it is not possible anymore. Athletes should arrive five days before their event and also they are expected to leave the village 24-48 hours after finishing the competition.
Canada’s chef de mission, Marnie McBean, who has been in many Olympic villages, said that type of hang-out socializing was not possible anymore. Most of the Canadian athletes will stay in the village but some other, like Mike Woods will be in controlled bubbles which are near their competition sites.
Wood who was in his hotel in Gotemba, which is the Olympic road race’s site, said that didn’t feel like he was in Japan, that experience was somehow strange to him. He said on Tuesday that he had gone from the Tour de France which had been another cycling bubble to the same people in the hotel which he had seen in France. He added they were not allowed to leave the hotel unless it was for training rides, and during the training, they had not been permitted to stop. He said he can guess he was in Japan only when he could see Mount Fuji or the Japanese signs in the street.
McCloskey: More positive cases are on the way
All these strict rules are supposed to keep everyone safe, but despite the existence of these rules, a lot of positive cases among athletes and officials who have come to Japan were announced.
Olympic organizers said on Tuesday that, this month 71 people who were in the Olympic bubble, have tested positive for COVID-19. Brian McCloskey who is chair of the independent expert panel on COVID-19 countermeasures said they had predicted to see those results, he said if he had thought all the players and officials who had come to Japan for the Olympics would test negative, he wouldn’t bother himself for testing them in the first place. McCloskey predicted that there would be more positive cases in the future days.
He said they would not put a figure on it and it was impossible to predict but they would do their best to keep that number as low as possible, and they would make sure that all the positive cases would be perfectly managed.
Rigorous testing for athletes
According to Canadian officials, athletes are getting used to rigorous testing. They know perfectly that these testing will be done regularly as part of these Olympic games.
Nathan Hirayama who is rugby sevens co-captain and is also one of the flag-bearers for Canada at Friday’s opening ceremony said as Canadian athletes he would trust the protocols. He said all those rules and protocols would not be something new for most of the athletes who had come to Japan.
McBean said that system is familiar for the athletes who came to the village and they had been working on them for almost a year.
Exploring is different from interacting with other athletes
He said there was a divider in the cafeteria that made you feel like you were sitting in a glass box while eating your meal and you could also take off your mask there. There you can see faces and interact with each other.
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