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Dortmund (dpa) - Former shot put world champion Christina Schwanitz has expressed great doubts and concerns about hosting the Olympic Games in Japan this year.

"I don't think Tokyo will take place," said the 35-year-old from LV 90 Erzgebirge on the sidelines of the German indoor championships for athletes at the weekend in Dortmund.

"I just think the people in Japan are scared and don't want to."

In surveys, the vast majority of the population is in favor of postponing the spectacle again or canceling it entirely.

Despite the ongoing corona pandemic, the games in Tokyo, which have been postponed by a year, are due to open on July 23 with 11,000 athletes.

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"I would be in favor of saying: Your organizers will get the money so that you can at least get to plus minus zero and not have any damage," said Schwanitz.

If the competitions take place, they only have one motto: "Get there as soon as possible and get home as quickly as possible!"

The measures against the virus would take "everything that makes an Olympic existence: this glamorous, so many athletes that you can exchange ideas with the world."

Although Schwanitz is still missing an Olympic medal and therefore continued her career after the birth of her twins in 2017, she expressed doubts about the sense of such games: “I now have eleven or twelve corona tests and three doping controls.

I think to myself: We haven't had a lot of doping controls.

Then what do the others have? "

In addition, top athletes would have very different training options in the pandemic.

“Then there is the fact that one or the other athlete says: Oh God, I'm very afraid of Corona.

This is where the moral responsibility starts for every athlete: Can I agree with my conscience to even go there?

We are very many athletes who ask this question, ”said Schwanitz.

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According to the two-time European champion, the organizers should also ask this question: "Can I expect the athletes to face such a responsibility?"

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210220-99-526530 / 3

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