The five-time Olympic Japanese diver, Terauchi Ken has tested positive to covid-19, making him the first Japanese Tokyo Olympics bound athletes to be covid-19 positive.
According to Miki House, Terauchi’s sponsoring company, after training at a club in Osaka on July 24, he had close contact with an acquaintance who was infected with the virus. He started coughing on the 25th and had a fever on the 27th with abnormal smell and taste. On the 31st, he underwent a test. The test results on August 1 showed that he had been infected. On the 2nd, he was still in fever and was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Terauchi a clinical psychologist graduate is 39 years old this year. He participated in the Olympics for the first time as early as 1996. He later participated in the Sydney, Athens, Beijing and Rio Olympics. His best result was the fifth place in the men’s 10-meter platform at the Sydney Olympics. At the World Swimming Championships, he won bronze medal in springboard in 2011 and in Gwangju, South Korea in July last year, he and his teammate Cheng Sakai ranked seventh in the men’s 3-meter double springboard competition and qualified for the Olympics.
According to Kyodo News, Terauchi is the only confirmed case in the Tokyo Olympic delegation so far. The teammates and staff he has contacted with have not yet developed symptoms of infection, but will all undergo test.
Terauchi’s diagnosis process also clearly exposed the problem of controlling the epidemic in Japan. It took 7 days from the onset of symptoms to the diagnosis. This problem has existed for several months. On May 13, 28-year-old Sumo wrestler Katsu Samurai died of multiple organ failure due to related infection to covid-19. It took nearly a week from the onset of symptoms to the diagnosis. Finally, he was sent to the hospital for treatment until he vomited blood.
Japan is currently hit by the second wave of the epidemic. On the 3rd, there were 955 new confirmed cases of covid-19 across the country. Previously, there were more than 1,000 new cases in a single day for five consecutive days. The cumulative number of confirmed cases reached 40,212 and 4 new death.
DiscernSport