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PRESIDENT BIDEN CAST DOUBTS ON AMERICA’S PARTICIPATION AT TOKYO 2020

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US President Joe Biden said on Sunday (Feb 7) that it remains to be seen if the United States will send a team to the pandemic-postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in a radio interview in which he also weighed in on diversity in sport.

Japan’s government, organisers and Olympic officials all insist the Games will go ahead this summer,  and that extensive virus countermeasures – including the possibility of staging the quadrennial event without spectators- will ensure the event is safe.

The Olympics are set to open on July 23 and run until Aug 8.

Asked in a Super Bowl half-time radio interview with network Westwood One if he thought the Games would go ahead, Mr Biden said any decision “has to be based on science”.

“I hope we can play, I hope it’s possible, but it remains to be seen,” he said, stressing that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was “working very hard to be in a position to be able to safely open the Games”.

Mr Biden, who took office last month, said he hated to think of the athletes not being able to compete.

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“Imagine all those Olympians who work for four years, four years for one shot and all of a sudden that opportunity gets lost,” he said. “They are the people that I feel such pain for.”

Mr Biden also addressed the topic of diversity, at a time when National Football League (NFL) teams have faced accusations of systemic racism for their failure to promote minority coaches to senior roles.

When asked by the show’s host if he had any advice for the NFL going forward, the president said teams had to “go out and look, there’s numerous incredible qualified African-American coaches out there”.

“I don’t understand why they cannot find – because they exist – so many African-American coaches that are qualified that should be in the pros in my view,” he added.

-Reuters/AFP

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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