When Japanese sprint star Rikako Ikee announced she would be returning to competition sooner than her originally-planned October meet, our post included information regarding a positive COVID-19 test occurring with her Nihon University-based swim club.
Since that result was made public, more than 70 staff members, swimmers, and others involved with the club were tested for coronavirus (COVID-19), resulting in an additional 10 people testing positive, according to NHK. Leukemia survivor Ikee is practicing in a separate pool from the male members and no infection has been confirmed per Asian media.
She originally was going to compete at the Nihon University and Chuo University dual to be held later this month at the Tatsumi International Swimming Center in Tokyo. However, as we reported, she has since changed her mind to instead compete at the Tokyo Swimming Association’s ‘Tokyo Metro Special Meet’ slated for August 29th.
Ironically, the Nihon University/Chuo University dual has since been canceled due to the aforementioned positive COVID-19 tests.
Nihon University representatives say that they will continue to provide health and safety guidance to students and will continue to work to prevent the spread of the infection.
Ikee has been training with Renaissance Club even though she attends Nihon University. In Japan, college swimmers can train at their private clubs and still compete for their colleges. There are some rules, but not like NCAA rules here.
Yikes. Not a good look for the safety of swimming or pulling off the Olympics safely. And Japan was supposed to have this under control.
Maybe wearing masks isn’t the definitive answer?
Curious why so many down votes for your comment.
Hard to say, but my guess is that some who comment on this site feel masks are the end all be all even though in Japan they have a culture of wearing masks when sick. The point is to consider the possibility that they aren’t 100% foolproof and it also depends on what type of mask you wear. For example don’t ware a neck gaiter.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/wearing-a-neck-gaiter-may-be-worse-than-no-mask-at-all-study-finds
I think masks are a part of the solution but not the definitive answer as you alluded to.