More than two dozen athletes test positive for COVID-19 at Tokyo Olympics
07 August 2021
The withdrawal of Greece's entire 12-woman artistic swimming team was just one high-profile example of athletes who had their experience at the Games cut short due to the virus.
The big picture: The worst fears may not have been realized, but COVID still had an impact on the Olympics despite the protocols — and Tokyo had an even bigger spike of virus cases outside the Games.
By the numbers: As of Friday, 382 people had tested positive for COVID-19 at the Games, including 29 athletes, according to an Olympic database of cases.
- The total includes 31 people who live in the Olympic village and 351 people who live outside the village.
Some of the other athletes who withdrew from the Games due to COVID-19 include:
- American pole vaulter Sam Kendricks, who was widely considered a medal contender, tested positive on July 29, prompting his withdrawal.
- Two members of Trinidad and Tobago's Olympic team, including a long jumper and a 400-meter hurdler, per Reuters.
- American men's beach volleyball player Taylor Crabb was the first Team USA athlete to test positive for the Games, per NBC News.
- Four Czech athletes tested positive, including beach volleyball players Ondřej Perušič and Markéta Sluková-Nausch, table tennis player Pavel Sirucek and cyclist Michal Schlegel, per Forbes.
- July 23 (opening ceremony): 1,128
- Aug. 7: 4,566
Between the lines: Those are snapshots, but if you go beyond daily case counts, there's been a 133.3%increase between the latest seven-day average and the previous week's average.
Go deeper: Behind the scenes at the COVID Olympics
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.