BOA: Eyes on Tokyo Games

WITH an air of uncertainty swirling around the globe, the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) is still eyeing a clear path to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage many countries, the governing body for Olympic sports on the island is still preparing for the postponed Games.

In an interview with The Barbados Advocate, Chef de Mission of the local delegation Cameron Burke said that as far as the BOA was concerned, the Games were on. Noting that they are working towards the new July 24 to August 8 dates,

Burke said that the International Organising Committee (IOC) had no Plan B for the already postponed Games.

Going on to state that the BOA was continuing to conduct their fund-raising through the Barbados Lottery and would be receiving additional input from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Burke added that the IOC and the Tokyo Organising Committee would be hosting a meeting for Chefs de Mission on February 9 to apprise them of all protocols to be lined out in the playbook.

“Clearly certain protocols would have to be put in place – countermeasures to combat the virus and to make sure that the Games are conducted in a safe environment and the athletes are in a safe environment. At the BOA, we are continuing to plan so that we can be represented at the Games and also have our own protocols in place to ensure that our athletes are safe before, during and after the Games,” Burke said.

Revealing that there was not expected to be a large delegation this year, Burke noted that there were seven national federations looking to give their athletes an opportunity to go to qualifying events. Expecting around 12 athletes from Track and Field, Surfing, Boxing, Judo, Triathlon and possibly Shooting, Burke noted that there were no qualifiers to date.

“Nobody has qualified for the Games as yet, but the closest to qualifying seems to be the judoka Asa Weithers. The swimmer Jack Kirby is a couple hundredths of the A time. But the fortunate thing is most of our athletes are overseas-based, so they would still be able to get some sort of training and some sort of competition, especially the Track and Field athletes in the USA.”

Going on to state that COVID-19 had resulted in adverse effects on the staging of the Games, Burke quipped that it had worked in the favour of others with triathlete Matthew Wright and tennis player Darian King also in with a chance of making the cut.

“If the Games were held at the original time, Matthew would not have made it because of injury. But now that the Games have been put back, it has given him more time. You always have an athlete who always meets misfortune and Matthew is now recovering from a serious bout of dengue. He is one that we need to get him back out there and back training. We will try our best to see how that works out. Darian King is another one who could qualify because he is the top Caribbean player, but we need to get him out and to a training environment that will assist him with recovery from the situation with his hand injury and get him back into playing competitive tennis while training at the same time,” he said.

Adding that he was only recently in contact with the Barbados host city of Nanyo, Burke revealed that due to the protocols being put in place by the Japanese government, the previously-slated pre-Games training camp might not be a reality.

“That camp would have only benefitted about two or three of the athletes. The judoka and the boxers – if the boxers qualify because the other facilities are not up to Olympic standards in Nanyo City. And for the Track and Field athletes, the competition that they will get there is not up to scratch to what they will require, so it will be better to leave the athletes in the present training environments and then bring them in.”

Noting that the situation was in no way unique to Barbados, Burke revealed that many had to find creative solutions to one of the most important protocols.

“One of the protocols that is in place for the Games is that the athletes can only come into the Village five days before the start of competition. And then we have to look at acclimatisation – how the athletes acclimatise to Japan if they can only come into the Village five days before. We might still have to look at other areas in Japan to take the athletes, so that they can acclimatise before coming into the Village for competition. We are still dealing with a fluid situation and there is still lots of fine-tuning that has to go on,” he said.