Japan men’s hockey team coach Siegfried Aikman, who won the 2018 Asian Games with Japan, stated that all the National Olympic Committee (NOCs) at the Tokyo Olympics will have their own set of doctors and medical staff for COVID-19 and other emergencies. According to him, Japanese people don’t protest much and most people he has met during his stay in the country want the Tokyo Olympics to happen, as everything is under control. Japan is stringent on protocols when it comes to COVID and having experienced those in recent times, Aikman is confident there is no risk of foreign athletes spreading the infection: “Restrictions are very hard and strict in Japan regarding COVID and I don’t think there is a huge risk for foreign athletes to travel to Japan and infect people. So the chance that they will infect Japanese people with COVID is zero,” he concluded.
Talking about the importance of winning the gold medal at the Olympics, he said: “Field hockey is a minor sport here in Japan, winning will help make the sport popular, but not just winning, playing with passion, replicate what rugby did”.
