Coronavirus: Keep training for Tokyo Olympics, John Coates tells athletes

AOC president John Coates has confirmed there is a three-month window in which to decide if the Tokyo Olympics will proceed.

Ariarne Titmus, Madison Wilson and Brianna Throssell at training on the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday. Picture: Lachie Millard

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates has confirmed there is about a three-month window in which to decide whether the Tokyo Olympics will proceed because of the corona­virus threat, but says Australia continues to plan for the Games.

Mr Coates told The Australian he “didn’t disagree” with Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the International Olympic Committee, who said on Wednesday the fate of the Games would be determined by what happened over the next three months.

Coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people globally and killed more than 2700.

Mr Coates said the uncertainty around the Games was not unprecedented, recalling the lead-up to the 1980 Olympics where, led by the US, more than 45 nations boycotted the Games in protest against the Soviet Union invasion of Af­ghan­­istan. “With the Moscow Olympics, right up until the death, the government was telling us not to go,” he told The Australian.

Then there was the Zika virus threat to the Rio Olympics in 2016.

“The most important thing for the AOC is to establish where all our athletes are and make sure none of them is training in the areas that will make it difficult for them to enter Japan,’’ Mr Coates said. “In the case of Australian ­athletes, they should continue to prepare for the Olympics.”

The rapid spread of corona­virus has already forced Australia’s Olympic women’s water polo squad to shift its planning training camp in Europe because it was too close to the Italian epicentre, where seven people have died. Rowers will no longer head to the Australian Institute of Sport campus in northern Italy and may prepare in New Zealand instead.

The Tokyo Organising Committee insisted on Wednesday that the Games were going ahead on schedule. Mr Pound said by the start of June the Olympics would have developed their own momentum, yet there was also the massive consideration of public safety to be managed.

“This is the new war and you have to face it,” he said. “In and around that time, I’d say folks are going to have to ask: ‘Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo?’ ’’

The Games have been cancelled three times before, each time as a result of world wars. The 1916 Games, which were to have been staged in Berlin, were cancelled because of World War I, while the 1940 Tokyo Games and 1944 London Games were cancelled as World War II raged.

Leading Australian swimming medal hopefuls Cate Campbell and Ariarne Titmus have their heads down and are training hard for Tokyo.

Campbell, who won five sprint gold medals at the 2018 Pan Pac championships in Tokyo, admits she has not been giving the corona­virus a lot of thought. “I’m focusing on training and qualifying for the team,” she told The Australian. “I’m not an expert in health and I know that the AOC are monitoring the situation.’’

Titmus, speaking on the final day of a swim camp on the Sunshine Coast, had her eyes fixed firmly on the black line at the ­bottom of the St Andrew’s pool at Peregi­an Springs.

“I definitely am not worried about it,” said Titmus, the reigning 400m freestyle world champion.

“Training is my No 1 priority. Obviously it has been in the media a lot and that makes it a bit scarier than what it is but it’s not my job to worry about it.

“I’m just focused on swimming the best that I can and trying to get myself on to that team.’’

The Tokyo Olympic Games are due to start on July 24.