"Bacterial medal" raises controversy at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

A Japanese Olympic gold medal-winning athlete is set to receive a replacement after the mayor of her hometown was bitten by the original medal.

Takashi Kawamura, mayor of the Japanese city of Nagoya, sparked outrage on social media because he gave away some of the medal awarded to softball player Mio Goto.

Kwamura was accused of ignoring measures to counter the COVID-19 epidemic and disrespecting the medal.

Olympics officials said they would replace the medal with a new one, after the city's mayor apologized and promised to pay for the medal replacement.

Commentators on social media said that what the city mayor did was unhealthy as well as inappropriate for the sport.

"Other than showing disrespect for the medal, this act is contagious," Yuki Ota, a silver medalist in fencing, wrote on Twitter.

Shortly after the incident, the hashtag “germ medal” went viral on social media.

Even Toyota, which owns the team Goto plays for, condemned the act as "unacceptable" and "unfortunate".

The mayor, 72, apologized for the act, which caused nearly 7,000 complaints to city authorities.

"I forgot my position as mayor of Nagoya and acted inappropriately," he said, promising to pay for the replacement of the medal.

A statement issued by the Tokyo 2020 organizers said that it was agreed between Goto and the International Olympic Committee to replace the medal.

The statement added that the committee will bear the costs.

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