Tokyo 2020 – 'Absolutely no conversations' about Olympics being scrapped – Team GB chief Mark England
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Updated 22/07/2021 at 11:25 GMT
"We have had absolutely no conversations on the Games being cancelled at all with anyone within the Olympic fraternity," insisted England. England spoke to Eurosport's Greg Rutherford, the Team GB medal winner from London 2012 and Rio 2016 who is on the ground in Tokyo for the duration of the Olympics.
'Absolutely no conversations' about Olympics being scrapped – Team GB chief
Team GB Chef de Mission Mark England says there have been “absolutely no conversations” about Tokyo 2020 being cancelled at the eleventh hour.
The Olympics have had a difficult build-up with a number of Covid cases reported in the Athletes’ Village, while headlines suggesting the Games could be scrapped spread across the globe following comments from the head of the organising committee.
Toshiro Muto said “discussions” would be held if there is a spike in infections – words that were interpreted to mean the Games could still be canned.
England spoke to Eurosport expert and 2012 long jump gold medallist Greg Rutherford about the rumours and insisted cancellation has not been mooted.
"There a couple of things in there, as you know from your own experience you are in a mindset of performing now and any interruption to that can be distracting for sure, but you are pretty concentrated and determined on the task in hand,” he said.
“We have had absolutely no conversations on the Games being cancelled at all with anyone within the Olympic fraternity.
“We had a Chef de Mission’s meeting this morning and there was no conversational debate on that, but as I said competition started this morning and I’m very confident that competition will definitely still be going ahead in 17/18 days’ time and we’ll reflect on a wonderful celebration of sport."
The Olympics officially open on July 23, although they technically kicked off with Japan’s win over Australia in the softball preliminaries on Wednesday.
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