Olympic Committee Releases New Guidelines For Players Infected With Covid-19
Tokyo, 16th June 2021: International Olympic Committee (IOC) sporting director, Kit McConnell, released the final and third edition of the Olympic Games Rules Playbook. He said that the athlete will not be thrown out of the competition if they are infected with Covid-19, but they will be entitled to their position.
McConnell said that if a player in long-running sports such as tennis and badminton is found to be Covid-19 infected before the final, then he/she will have to be content with the silver medal. We have made some changes in the rules of every game due to Covid-19, which will be passed on to all the international federations.
McConnell further explained the rule that if a player cannot participate due to Covid-19, then instead of being ‘disqualified’, he/she will be marked as ‘did not start the game’, because being infected is not the mistake of the athlete or the team. In addition, if a player has to be out, their place will remain vacant. Unless an athlete of higher rank is not eligible.
Apart from this, if a team is unable to participate in the semi-finals, then it will probably be replaced by the team playing in the quarter-finals. On the other hand, if an athlete is found infected with Covid-19 in a medal-claiming match, he/she will be given a medal at a lower level.
Contrary to all this, if the athlete is found violating the Covid-19 rules, then there is also a process of suspending him/her. The Olympic Playbook has guidelines related to Covid-19 for players and officials. Its second version came in April and there is no significant change in the third one as well.
