Clean, repeat: At Tokyo Games, COVID-19 is Olympians' chief foe
Underscoring the health risks of such proximity: They are the only people in the cavernous hall not wearing face masks.
But because wrestling is the most close-contact sport of the Olympics, it also speaks loudest of the all-out war against the virus that athletes have waged to get to Tokyo and, once here, continue to fight to stay free of infection and compete. "In Brazil, everybody knows that it is best to not be in parties and do things like that. But I don't know why they don't care, they do anyway," Silva said. "So we need to show people that we need, right now, to be focused on doing our jobs as safely as possible."
In Tokyo, Olympians can't not think about that. They are sealed off in a giant sanitary bubble built with daily tests, oceans of sanitizer and strict restrictions on their movements. They are instructed not to mix with people outside their teams. They are told to avoid hugs, high-fives and handshakes -- all deemed "unnecessary" by Games organizers -- advice they often ignore in the heat and joy of competition. They cannot watch sports other than their own or wander around the city.
In badminton, when players need to replace a damaged shuttlecock, they now get a new one themselves from a dispenser, so they are no longer handled by the match official who used to distribute them.
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