Japan's Naomi Osaka said on Sunday that while she has spent her entire life waiting to compete at the Olympics, the risks of holding the Tokyo Games amid the raging COVID-19 pandemic should continue to be carefully discussed.
Opinion surveys have shown that most Japanese oppose holding the Games this summer due to worries about the coronavirus, and Tokyo itself is currently under a state of emergency to tame a rise in infections.
"Of course I want the Olympics to happen, but I think there's so much important stuff going on, especially the past year," she told a news conference ahead of the Italian Open. "A lot of unexpected things have happened. Japan has recorded more than 600,000 coronavirus cases and more than 10,500 deaths, but its inoculation campaign has been relatively slow so far, with only about 2% of the population of about 126 million having received at least one vaccine dose.
Osaka, who at the age of 23 has won both the U.S. Open and Australian Open twice, said she had already been vaccinated against COVID-19, and added that it would not be right to "force" people to get inoculated.
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