Brush with Covid could spell end of Olympic dream

Australia’s Tokyo Games chef de mission Ian Chesterman is warning athletes that there is “no absolute safety net” that will guarantee their participation at the Games.

Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers says athletes are used to being told what to do

Australia’s Tokyo Games chef de mission Ian Chesterman is making a tour of the country talking to confirmed and likely Olympic athletes and warning then bluntly that there is “no absolute safety net” that will guarantee their participation at the Games.

In recent days, Chesterman has addressed the sprint kayaking team – which has been selected – and the swimming squad assembled on the Gold Coast ahead of the Olympic trials in Adelaide in June.

Within the limits of what has already been decided, he told them that nothing can be guaranteed in the midst of a global pandemic. Even if the Games go ahead, there could be circumstances which might prevent individuals from competing.

What would happen, for example, if it was established they had shared an adjoining lane in training with an athlete who tested positive for Covid? Might they be forced to enter two weeks of quarantine, which in the context of a 16-day Games would mean the end of their Olympic dream?

“I’ve not said anything as black and white as that but in my communication to athletes only yesterday, I’ve made sure they see the line in the (IOC’s Athletes) Playbook that says there’s no absolute safety net that can be provided that something won’t go wrong,” Chesterman said on Tuesday while attending an informal intra-squad Dolphins swim meet at the Bond University pool. “I’ve ensured they are fully aware of the environment they are going into and the ramifications that might be there.

“And I’m also giving them an absolute commitment that we will do everything we can to make sure they are safe and remain COVID-free before the Games and at the Games. We have confidence that the organisers and the IOC will provide a safe environment at the Games as well.

“I worked out after the Games were postponed (last year) that they deserved that honesty.”

All would-be Olympians reluctantly recognise that even if IOC officials appear fully confident the Games will go ahead, in reality the possibility remains that they may have devoted four years of their lives to training for an event that could be cancelled.

“You’re only human if you have that doubt,” he said. “But any time I’ve heard any doubt, I’ve said you just have to be ready. You cannot afford to say that the Games won’t go ahead because if they do and you’re not ready, that’s a regret you won’t live with.”

Kyle Chalmers, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic 100mn freestyle champion, insisted that at least as far as the swim team was concerned, everyone had come to terms with the realities they will face in Tokyo.

“I don’t think it will affect anyone,” said Chalmers. “Everyone just wants to race at an Olympic Games and I’m going over there to swim a couple of laps of the pool. It doesn’t matter if there are crowds there, it doesn’t matter if you have to wear a mask.

“As athletes, we’re told what to do our whole careers so we are very good at understanding situations. We’ll do whatever it takes to get back there and race.”

Chesterman admitted it would only be closer to the Games in July that answers would begin to emerge for athletes and officials.

“That’s where the Playbook in April will tell us more, and in June will tell us more. We don’t know that yet so we need to wait and see what happens. There is a fair bit more to come out and I understand why they are waiting for that. They need to understand what the latest techniques and advances are in terms of dealing with (Covid). And I’m sure the Australian Open tennis will help with the learnings about running a major event in the midst of a pandemic.

“We understand what the big picture of the Games looks like. There are still some things we don’t understand, like how the dining room will work. We don’t understand if there are going to be spectators, we don’t understand whether there will be international spectators. But we do understand that it will be a fly-in, fly-out model and the level of testing that will be done across the Games and so we can advance our own planning.

“We will be working bloody hard to make sure everyone is safe when they get there and they stay safe. And I am confident we can do that.

“It’s going to be a totally different environment in the Village, and a totally different environment in the way they have to go about and live. But everyone I speak to says “we’re up for it”.

“They want their moment on their Olympic stage. The world has been turned upside down for them and they have tried to focus on what they need to do.”