Tokyo 2020: What Covid rules do athletes have to follow at the Olympic village?

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was postponed for 12 months until a new start date of 23 July 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic. But even a year later - and with much greater understanding of the virus - the spectre of Covid is still hanging over the games.

Since the start of the tournament Japan has expanded its Covid state of emergency to four more areas outside Tokyo as infection numbers rise. Although the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, has said the games will be “safe and secure” there remains opposition, even as thousands of athletes arrived in the capital.

This scepticism was only furthered by reports of positive Covid tests at the athlete village even before the games had begun.

Bach said “[the athletes] have the same interest as the Japanese people in ensuring these Games are safe and secure. And for this they accept and even welcome measures that make these Olympics the most restricted sports event not only in Japan but in the entire world”.

But what are the rules for the thousands of athletes who have made the waterfront village their home during the competition? Are they allowed to go sightseeing or socialise with other teams?

Daily PCR tests

Team GB long jumper Jazmin Sawyers shared a video on her TikTok page explaining all the rules that the athletes are required to follow during their stay.

The 27-year-old said that they are required to take a PCR test every day. “It has to be submitted before 10am so no long lie-ins.

“Then we take our temperature and enter it into the daily questionnaire on the app to go to the Japanese government so that they can keep track of what we’re doing and where we are.”

Hand sanitiser and masks

Sawyers said when they are out and about there is hand sanitiser available “everywhere” which they are expected to use regularly as they move around the site.

Anyone who has watched the games will also know that the athletes have to wear face masks when they are moving around and not competing - including when on the winner’s podium. “You have to wear masks at all times unless you’re eating or training,” explained Sawyers.

Behaviour in the hotel

The athletes are not allowed to leave their assigned team hotel, says Sawyers, unless they are going to training or are on their permitted once-daily walk, which is supervised.

“If you wanna get outside while you’re at the hotel we have access to [a] balcony which we share with all the other sports but you have to keep your mask on,” she says.

When the athletes are eating in communal areas they are also required to sit behind plastic screens. “You’re also not allowed to serve yourself food and this is all for safety,” adds Sawyers.

The team are also restricted to a “few floors of the hotel” according to Sawyers and are not permitted to interact with the public “in any way”.

This also includes members of the media - interviews are conducted via Zoom or filmed remotely in a room with a skeleton crew of one person, she added.

Leaving post-competition

Once athletes have finished competing in their event - they have to leave Japan within two days, according to reports.

And if they break the rules they will be sent home earlier. Some athletes have reportedly already fallen foul of this, including Georgian Judo competitors who reportedly went sightseeing in their sporting kits. Tourist activities are not permitted for visiting athletes.

A Georgian official told The Guardian: “No one stopped them at the exit, so they thought that they could go outside.”