Greek Olympic Champion Katerina Stefanidi has lashed out at the International Olympic Committee for maintaining that it’s too early to cancel the Summer Olympics in Japan.
Stefanidi won an Olympic gold medal in the pole vault competition in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, as well as numerous world championships.
The International Olympic Committee has refused to cancel the Games. In a statement on March 17, the official body that oversees the Olympics movement said:
“The IOC remains fully committed to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and with more than four months to go before the Games there is no need for any drastic decisions at this stage; and any speculation at this moment would be counter-productive.”
Even two days later as the virus continues to spread throughout the world and more are calling for the cancellation of the Games, Thomas Bach, president of the IOC said “cancellation is not on the agenda” in an in depth interview with The New York Times.
In a Tweet directed to the IOC, Stefanidi said: “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.”
