This year’s winners at the Tokyo Olympics will have to put their medals around their own necks in front of empty stands and “sound system” cheers, according to the new protocols.
Olympic medalists at the Tokyo Games will have their medals presented on a tray when they take to the podium and will then have to put them around their own neck in front of the empty stands, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has confirmed.
The 2020 Games, which have been delayed by a year, get underway on 23 July amid concerns surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The medals will not be given around the neck," Bach told a virtual media roundtable on Wednesday.
"They will be presented to the athlete on a tray and the athlete will take the medal him or herself. It will be made sure that the person who will put the medal on the tray will do so only with disinfected gloves, so that the athlete can be sure that nobody touched them before.”
The Olympic approach is different to soccer in Europe where UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has personally hung medals around the necks of players at competition finals in recent weeks.
Bach also confirmed that in Tokyo “there will be no handshakes and there will be no hugs during the ceremony.”
Olympic medals are typically presented by an IOC member or a leading official in a sport’s governing body.
The IOC had previously said medalists and ceremony officials would have to wear masks.
With no paying spectators allowed to attend most Olympic events, what Bach described as an “immersive sound system” will try to create an atmosphere for the athletes in the stadiums and venues.
Crowd noise recorded from each event at previous Olympics will be fed into the arena as one of several ways to support the athletes.
Some athletes will be connected after their event via screens to their families, friends and fan clubs at home, while fans will be able to send video clips of up to six seconds that can be displayed next to the field of play. (NP)
Tags: #TokyoOlympics, #medalawarding, #Covid19, #healthprotocols