Conversations are underway between government and British Olympic Association about securing athletes a Covid-19 vaccination; IOC member Dick Pound is confident the Olympics can still go ahead as long as athletes can be vaccinated beforehand.
Olympic athletes should be given priority access to coronavirus vaccines to save the Tokyo Games from cancellation, according to a prominent International Olympic Committee (IOC) member.
According to Sky News conversations are underway between the government and the British Olympic Association (BOA) about securing athletes a Covid-19 vaccination by July, when the delayed Tokyo Olympics are due to begin.
But British Olympic bosses are keen to stress that this would not be at the expense of elderly or vulnerable people.
Canadian Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the IOC, is confident that the Olympics can still go ahead with global participation as long as athletes can be vaccinated beforehand.
He told Sky News: “In Canada where we might have 300 or 400 athletes – to take 300 or 400 vaccines out of several million in order to have Canada represented at an international event of this stature, character and level – I don’t think there would be any kind of a public outcry about that.
“It’s a decision for each country to make and there will be people saying they are jumping the queue but I think that is the most realistic way of it going ahead.”
Source: www.skysports.com
