OIC President: Summer Olympics in Tokyo Held Successfully Despite All Difficulties

© REUTERS / KIM KYUNG-HOON

The Summer Olympics in the Japanese capital, initially scheduled to take place in 2020, were postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They commenced on 23 July, with stringent restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the virus, including a ban on spectators at nearly all Olympic venues.

The Tokyo Summer Olympics were a success despite all difficulties, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said at a press conference on Sunday.

He stressed that the games had not resulted in a spike of new COVID-19 cases in Japan. Bach said that 0.02 percent of the games' participants had tested positive for the coronavirus, which from his point of view is a very low figure.

The representatives of the International Olympic Committee and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike had previously dened a possible link between the rapid increase in coronavirus infections in Japan and the ongoing games. At the same time, Tokyo authorities announced on Thursday that the number of daily new COVID-19 cases exceeded 5,000, hitting the record since the pandemic outbreak. Countrywide, cases are also on the rise.

The IOC president added that the athletes from 93 countries had won Olympic medals this year, more than at any of the previous Olympic Games.

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