Feb 11, 2016 British and Japanese Olympic officials recently asserted that the Rio Olympics won’t be affected by the increasing concerns over zika virus.
Speaking at Ajinomoto Training Centre in Tokyo, Lord Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the British Olympics Association said:
“British athletes are not reluctant at all to compete in Rio. We have a proud tradition of having been at every Olympic games since 1896 – winter and summer – and all the British competitors are looking forward to it. And yes, the current issue is one that all national Olympic committees will be dealing with, and we’re speaking and working very, very closely with the organising committee and other agencies in Rio,”
Also speaking about the situation, Tsunekazu Takeda, Chairman of the Japan Olympics Committee, said:
“Boycotting the Olympics? I haven’t heard about any such sentiment among Japanese athletes. We are all trying very hard to perform our best in Rio,”
Lord Coe and Mr Takeda both signed a memorandum of understanding with Yokohama city, Kawasaki city and Keio University to allow British athletes access to training facilities ahead of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
After the signing, Lord Coe commented on the Olympic preparation saying:
“A large part of an Olympic games is the investment in the city, it’s the investment in people, it’s the investment in infrastructure – hard and soft. And the cost, of course, of the Games in the strictest terms is the operational budget that the local organizing committee is responsible for, and that is raised ostensibly from the private sector. So I tend to think of it not so much as a cost but an investment in the future of the city and the future of national sport.”