A potential explosion in Covid cases in China may keep Danish athletes from participating in Winter Olympics this year, the National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF) says.
At the moment there are no plans of withdrawing the Danish Athletes from the games, but DIF is monitoring the Chinese Covid situation and is ready to take action.
“If there is a safety hazard for our athletes that we can’t handle we won’t go. It is not just about Covid-19, it s a general approach,” Chairman of DIF, Hans Natorp, says.
The announcements come in the wake of the reports about the rising number of Covid cases in China that have made the Chinese government enforce a complete closedown of the major city Xi’an.
Preciously Canada has also talked about postponing the Olympics if the Covid situation gets out of hand in China and next week DIF and several countries will meet for a videoconference with The International Olympic Committee where one of the topics will be the Covid outbreak.
If the countries like Denmark and Canada should indeed choose not to compete, DIF is certain the Olympics will not happen.
“If the infection gets out of hand, no one will be attending. You won’t see a Winter Olympics without countries like Denmark and Canada but with the rest of the world competing,” Hans Natorp says.
The Winter Olympics is scheduled to be held from 4 February until 20 February.
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