Tokyo
Hayley Wickenheiser, a Canadian member of the International Olympic Committee Athletes Commission, says medical experts should decide whether or not to stage the Tokyo Olympics, not athletes or the IOC.
Wickenheiser, a six-time Olympian who won four ice hockey gold medals and also played softball at the 2000 Summer Games, told CBC Sports that safety and public health need to be the decisive factors about conducting the Games at Japan in July and August.
“This decision needs to be made by medical and health experts, not by corporate and big business,” Wickenheiser said in a posting on the CBC website.
“A very clear and transparent explanation needs to be given if the Games are going to go ahead.”
Wickenheiser, who is set to graduate from medical school next week, knows the money, preparation and training that has gone into the planned staging of the Games in Tokyo, which is now under “emergency orders” due to the Covid-19 pandemic that forced the postponement of the Olympics from last year.
Wickenheiser, a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, knows after training for years to compete, she would do anything to go, so athletes, and the IOC, shouldn’t make the final choice on the Games’ fate.
“You almost need someone else outside with less invested than you to say it is or isn’t worth it,” she said.—AFP
