Kuwait City, Kuwait, July 21, 2021: The President of the Olympic Council of Asia, His Excellency Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah, has sent a message of support to the OCA’s National Olympic Committees taking part in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Sheikh Ahmad congratulated the athletes and officials of the continent’s NOCs for all their preparatory work ahead of Tokyo 2020 and praised their hard work and dedication to the Olympic movement.
“These will be an Olympic Games like no other,” Sheikh Ahmad said.
“Everything was running so smoothly until the coronavirus forced the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to be postponed in March 2020.
“This was an unprecedented situation in the history of the Olympic Games and created new challenges for all of us – athletes, officials, administrators and the organising committee.”
Sheikh Ahmad said that it was only the team work and unity of the Olympic movement that enabled the Tokyo Games to be rescheduled one year later than planned.
“This has proved, once again, that sport has the power to bring the world together,” said Sheikh Ahmad.
“Athletes from around the world are gathering in Tokyo and, despite the restrictions, will no doubt generate excitement for the people of the world to enjoy over the next few weeks.
“The Olympic Games and Olympic Spirit can never be defeated – and Tokyo 2020 will be a good example of the resilience and determination shown to bring us to this point.”
Sheikh Ahmad acknowledged that everyone had to remain on their guard and follow the health protocols put in place by the Japanese government in order to deliver a safe and secure Olympic Games.
“I would like to thank all our Asian NOCs for preparing the best conditions possible for their athletes in such difficult circumstances,” he added.
“Finally, I would like to wish our athletes all success. I am sure Asia will be a major player in all sports on the programme and emerge with many medals and great credit from Tokyo 2020.”
The Olympic Games will open on July 23 and run until August 8 with over 11,000 athletes competing in 339 events of 33 sports at 42 Olympic venues.