Seoul, Korea, September 22, 2020: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic around Asia was discussed at an online meeting of the Olympic Council of Asia's Sports and Environment Committee on Tuesday.
The Chairman of the Sports and Environment Committee, Mr Yu Kyung-Sun of Korea, said the pandemic had brought major disruption to the sports calendar around the world this year, notably with the Tokyo Olympics postponed by one year to July 2021.
"COVID-19 has created an unprecedented situation and has affected us all in Asia," he said.
"We should do everything we can to promote environment-friendly conditions in our sports events and must work as a team to address the current challenges."
Committee members from Iran, India, Japan, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan and Tajikistan outlined the COVID-19 situation in their respective countries and spoke of the measures being taken to keep athletes safe while trying to reintroduce sports competitions.
Representing the Japanese Olympic Committee, Mr. Yasuhiro Nakamori said the new Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, was very determined to hold the Olympic Games next year and that different scenarios were being discussed for different sports.
Regarding the situation in Tokyo now, Mr Nakamori said the professional sports of baseball, football and basketball were increasing the number of spectators from a maximum of 5,000 to half the stadium capacity, starting from today. This was a very positive step, he added, as it would reveal if the number of COVID-19 cases increased.
The Director of the OCA's Asian Games department, Mr Haider Farman, said the OCA was in constant contact with the authorities regarding the three OCA events due to be held next year: the postponed Asian Beach Games in Sanya, China in April, the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Thailand in May and the Asian Youth Games in Shantou, China in November. The following year will bring the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in September 2022.
"Our priority is to prepare a safe environment and the best conditions for our athletes at the three games next year and also at the Asian Games in 2022, so in this respect we are ready to receive any proposals and suggestions from the Sports and Environment Committee that can help us achieve this for the athletes and delegations," he said.
Mr Farman said that each of the OCA's 44 National Olympic Committees under the Olympic Solidarity programme had received a figure of 25,000 USD from a special fund provided by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC). This money can be used to help in the prevention of COVID-19 such as buying safety equipment or sanitising venues.