Tokyo Games should be held without spectators, says Japanese Olympic Committee executive

TOKYO: One of Japan's sporting legends and an executive of the country's Olympic committee said on Friday the Tokyo Games should be held without spectators to ensure the safety of the public and accused the organisers of using a"double standard".

"If we were to limit the virus and be careful about it, I'd say we should hold the Games without spectators," Yamaguchi told Reuters in a Zoom interview.Already postponed from last year because of the pandemic, a scaled-down version of the Games with no foreign spectators is set to start on Jul 23 despite public fears it could drain medical resources and spread the coronavirus as Japan appears to have contained the fourth wave of infections.

Despite the opposition, the Japanese government and the organisers have dug in their heels, saying the Games would go ahead"barring Armageddon", as one International Olympic Committee member put it.Yamaguchi, who won a bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Games, has expressed her dismay at such pronouncements, adding she thought the organisers"avoided dialogue" and that the IOC"seems to think that public opinion in Japan is not important".

Japan has recorded more than 760,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 13,800 deaths, while only 12 per cent of its population has received at least one vaccination shot - far behind other major economies.

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