Covid-19 vs Olympics: Your current plan’cannot work’- Tiley

The plan to deal with Covid-19 at the Tokyo Olympics ‘cannot work’, claims Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley.

Tiley and his 600-strong team have meticulously planned to host the ongoing Australian Open with crowds for 11 months in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

It has been a massive logistical undertaking to transport 1,200 players, officials and members of the media to Australia and arrange two weeks of quarantine for everyone, dishing out 30,000 Covid-19 tests in total.

Tiley has looked at the strategy in place for the Olympics later this year, which will have 11,000 athletes in total, and insists ‘vaccinations are not the silver bullet’, saying he cannot see the current plan working.

‘I’ve seen the playbook for the Olympics and I’ve looked at it carefully,’ Tiley said. ‘And compared to what we’ve done, we’ve had a far more rigorous program than is being proposed at the Olympics.

‘I love the Olympic Games. I’d like to see it be successful. But with the experience we had, I cannot see it working

‘There’s no such thing as no risk,’ he added. ‘But I cannot see it being done any other way, unless you are willing to accept a much higher risk of spreading the virus.’

‘Vaccination is not the silver bullet,’ he said. ‘I don’t see physical distancing and the wearing of masks and the quarantine going (away) anytime soon.’

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‘I think 2022 is going to be different to 2021, but not much different when it comes to health and the protection of ourselves from each other, because of the spread of the virus.’

Tokyo organisers currently have no plans to make athletes and spectators quarantine when the Games take place in July.