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The Tokyo Olympics will be more different from any previous Games in the modern era due to the coronavirus and it will even affect the way athletes interact with each other.
The president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, said on Wednesday that there would be no handshake and “there would be no hugs during the ceremony”.
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Bach added that medalists will have to hang their awards around their necks instead of the usual fanfare that accompanies the ceremonies.
“The medals will not be given around the neck,” Bach told reporters. “They will be presented to the athlete on a platform and then the athlete will take the medal himself.
“We will make sure that the person who puts the medal on the platform does so only with disinfected gloves so that the athlete can be sure that no one has touched them before.”
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Olympic organizers announced last week that the Games will go without spectators as the disease continues to plague parts of Japan.
“We have shown this responsibility since the day of the report,” Bach said last week, via Kyodo News. “And we will show it today as well, and we will support whatever steps are necessary to make the Olympic and Paralympic Games safe and secure for the Japanese people and all participants.”
The organizers previously allowed the sites to be filled to 50% of their capacity with a crowd not exceeding 10,000 people.
Athletes, media and sponsors were the only foreigners allowed at the Games.
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About 11,000 Olympians and 4,400 Paralympians are expected to enter Japan over the next few weeks with tens of thousands of officials, judges, administrators, sponsors and members of the media. The IOC said more than 80% of the residents of the Olympic Village will be vaccinated.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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