Rio de Janeiro Olympics women's pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi, who has criticized pushing ahead with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will still take part in Thursday's Olympic flame handover ceremony, Tokyo organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto revealed Wednesday.
The Greek athlete slammed the International Olympic Committee in a Tuesday interview with Reuters and on her private Twitter feed for asking athletes to train as usual for the Tokyo Olympics amid fears over the spread of the new coronavirus.
"This is not about how things will be in 4 months," she wrote on Twitter. "This is about how things are now. The IOC wants us to keep risking our health, our family's health and public health to train every day? You are putting us in danger right now, today, not in 4 months."
Stefanidi, who is scheduled to be the final runner to carry the torch before the handover on Thursday, told Reuters, "We all want Tokyo to happen but what is the Plan B if it does not happen? Knowing about a possible option has a major effect on my training because I may be taking risks now that I would not take if I knew there was also the possibility of a Plan B."
"We have to decide whether to risk our health and continue training in the current environment."
This is not about how things will be in 4 months. This is about how things are now. The IOC wants us to keep risking our health, our family’s health and public health to train every day? You are putting us in danger right now, today, not in 4 months.https://t.co/cICKVQ4qsZ
— Katerina Stefanidi (@KatStefanidi) March 17, 2020
On Wednesday, Tokyo organizers took part in a telephone conference with the IOC and the Greek Olympic committee, which indicated the Greek side would not alter their plans for the ceremony.
Originally intended to be a lavish event that was to include a performance by around 140 Japanese schoolchildren, the ceremony will be without a Japanese delegation. A pair of three-time Olympic champions, men's judoka Tadahiro Nomura and women's wrestler Saori Yoshida, were to accept the flame in Athens. They will now await the flame's arrival by charter aircraft at the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force base in Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture.
In their place, Naoko Imoto, who swam for Japan in the 1996 Athens Olympics and is currently in Greece for her work with UNICEF, will accept the flame on behalf of Japan.
