Lisa Curry on whether the 2021 Tokyo Olympics should be cancelled

Triple Olympian Lisa Curry weighs in on whether she believes the Tokyo Olympics should be cancelled.

“Would I go to Tokyo Olympics? Probably not because I value my life and health more than a race.”

In her exclusive column for Body+Soul liftout, available in today’s paper, triple Olympian Lisa Curry has questioned whether the world’s largest sporting event should still be held.

Her comments come as Japanese media reported this week an increase in the number of coronavirus infections in Tokyo.

Just weeks out from the Olympics, there are fears of a possible fifth wave in Japan as Tokyo

reported 714 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, nearly 100 more than the 619 reported a week before and topping 700 for the first time since May 26.

“I feel really sorry for the athletes who have been training for the Tokyo Olympics.” (Picture: Russell Shakespeare)

The rise in cases, coupled with evidence the more transmissible Delta variant is spreading, raises the likelihood that Tokyo may be subject to emergency measures in some form when the Olympics open on July 23.

Head of the government’s coronavirus response, Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, hinted another state of emergency could be declared.

Curry wrote: “I feel really sorry for the athletes who have been training for the Tokyo Olympics ... it’s difficult to train under these circumstances.”

“At this stage, the Games are still going ahead. The big question is: should the world’s greatest athletes be entering a country that has experienced four waves of the pandemic?

“This particular scenario bothers me.

“Are we really going to send the world’s greatest athletes to a country that has only just ended its state of emergency measures and which still has restrictions?

“It only takes one person in the athletes’ village, media village or transport hub to have the virus, and it could spread to everyone.

“Then those thousands of athletes , support staff, officials and media return home and spread the virus to the world.

Lisa Curry’s full column appears in this Sunday’s Body+Soul magazine.

“Call me pessimistic but if that’s the worst-case scenario, then that’s a bad option.”

Curry, 59, was herself a victim of disrupted Olympic preparation with boycotts in both her 1980 and 1984 campaigns.

The Russians had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and more than 60 countries boycotted Moscow, and four years later 14 Eastern Bloc countries boycotted LA Olympics in retaliation.

“Would I go to Tokyo Olympics? Probably not because I value my life and health more than a race.

“It’s an athlete’s dilemma.”