The chief of the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee has not ruled out the looming threat of a last-minute cancelation of the Olympics. The possibility has become a focal point as more and more athletes have tested positive for COVID-19 and a number of sponsors plan to ditch the opening ceremony on Friday.

Toshiro Muto said he planned to keep an eye on infection numbers and plan accordingly when asked about the possibility of a cancelation during a press conference.

“We can’t predict what will happen with the number of coronavirus cases. So we will continue discussions if there is a spike in cases,” Muto said.

“We have agreed that based on the coronavirus situation, we will convene five-party talks again. At this point, the coronavirus cases may rise or fall, so we will think about what we should do when the situation arises.”

Tokyo has been subject to rising COVID-19 cases. The Olympics are scheduled to be played out in empty arenas, implementing a precautionary approach after the event’s cancelation a year ago. The decision for events to be carried out without spectators was to minimize health risks.

Since July, there have been 67 positive COVID-19 cases among the athletes competing in the games. This has created further complications since athletes have been arriving at the games during this time period.

Japan has had an underwhelming push for vaccines compared to other developed nations, which has played a major role in the uptick of cases and the rising death toll.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and Olympic organizers have never considered the idea of cancelation and assured a “safe and secure” competition. However, experts have explained the potential gaps and liabilities of the “bubble” for the Olympics.

Kenji Shibuya, former director of the Institute for Population Health at King’s College London, has been critical of the Olympic “bubble” and explained that it already seems to be broken.

“My biggest concern is, of course, there will be a cluster of infections in the athlete’s village or some of the accommodation and interaction with local people,” Shibuya added.

Seiko Hashimoto, organizing committee president, has recognized that measures taken to keep the Japanese public safe have not been effective and the widespread support for the Olympics has dropped drastically.

“I really want to apologize from my heart for the accumulation of frustrations and concerns that the public has been feeling towards the Olympics,” said Hashimoto.

Hashimoto also explained the public is uneasy “because they feel that the current situation appears to show that the playbooks that were meant to guarantee security is not providing a sense of safety.”

In a recent poll, 68% of respondents expressed doubt in the Olympic committee’s ability to control the spread of the virus and 55% of respondents expressed opposition to the Olympics going forward.

On Thursday college quarterback, Trevor Lawrence announced he had tested positive for COVID-19. The Clemson star quarterback said in a tweet that he had tested for COVID-19 with mild symptoms and is following isolating protocols.

Lawrence was found to be COVID-19 positive during a team testing on Wednesday. Lawrence is the only player to have tested positive. As a result, he will be isolating himself for 10 days as per the protocols for COVID-19.

With their star quarterback out, the Tigers will have to work hard as they face the Boston College Eagles tomorrow. The Tigers will have a highly anticipated matchup with Notre Dame next week. Notre Dame is currently 4-0, and the Tigers are 5-0 in the standings. It is up in the air if Lawrence will be available to play next week.

The 21-year old quarterback joined the Clemson Tigers in 2018 as a five-star high school recruit. Lawrence became the starting quarterback during his freshman year and was able to lead the Tigers to both an NCG Championship and an ACC Championship. He finished the 2018 season winning the ACC Rookie of The Year award for his efforts. In 2019, Lawrence led the Tigers in repeating as ACC Championship.

Tomorrow’s game will tell if Clemson will be able to survive without their star quarterback. The team will have to play hard, as Lawrence watches from home.

The St. Louis Cardinals are the newest MLB team to have a COVID-19 outbreak. Over the weekend, the league released a statement giving more specifics about the incident. “The Cardinals have had 13 members of the organization test positive for COVID-19 in the last week, including seven players and six staff members,” the league said in a statement. “The Club, which has been in quarantine since Thursday, will stay in Milwaukee and their personnel will continue to be tested daily. The tentative plan is for the team to resume its regular schedule on Friday against the Chicago Cubs in St. Louis.”

It goes without saying that this is a disaster for the league, but how can it be a true calamity when the league does not seem to care how many people get infected during this restart. It feels like this should be a death-rattle for baseball in 2020, but if the league is going to turn a blind eye to what is happening then one shudders to think what will cause them to stop the season.

There was a rumor circulating that the Cardinals went to a casino recently, but the league denies that there is any evidence of that. “I have no factual reason to believe that is true,” he said. I have not seen any proof. If someone was at a casino, that would be disappointing.”

I truly believe that the MLB will not last another week with the rate that it is going plus the players that are likely to drop out after this news and that is probably for the best at this point. I do wonder if the NFL is looking at what is happening to the MLB versus how well the NBA and NHL are doing and are reconsidering whether or not they need a bubble.

During a CBS telecast on Sunday of the Memorial Golf Tournament, golfing legend Jack Nicklaus, 80, revealed that he and his wife Barbara tested positive for COVID-19 early on in the pandemic–around March. Being that they are in a particularly high-risk age group, this could be a scary situation for the elderly couple, but Nicklaus said his only notable symptom was a sore throat.

“It didn’t last very long, and we were very, very fortunate, very lucky,” Nicklaus said. “Barbara and I are both of the age, both of us 80 years old, that is an at-risk age. Our hearts go out to the people who did lose their lives and their families. We were just a couple of the lucky ones.”

Tiger Woods revealed that had known about Nicklaus’s positive test for some time saying, “The fact that they got through it and they’re safe and here and healthy, it’s all good news for all of us who are a part of golf and who looked up to Jack and [have] been around Barbara all these years,”

During the telecast for the Memorial Tournament that  Nicklaus created, he was wearing a mask at all times when on camera and was visibly keeping his distance. Also, replacing the tradition of shaking hands with the winner of the tournament,  Nicklaus and winner Jon Rahm settled on a fistbump.

“I’ve been dreaming of that handshake many times,” Rahm said. “Well, it was a fist bump because of the situation, but still, how many people can say they got a congratulatory fist bump from Jack Nicklaus?”

Nicklaus reportedly also tested positive for antibodies, but the CDC has been adamant that they are unsure whether or not somebody who has tested positive before can be infected again.

In a Twitter post on Tuesday, Oklahoma State linebacker Amen Ogbongbemiga revealed that after attending a protest in Tulsa he tested positive for COVID-19.

https://twitter.com/closedprayer/status/1267971181715632129

The 21-year-old Ogbongbemiga says that he protected himself while protesting, but it is unclear as to whether or not he got the virus during the protest given the long  incubation period of COVID-19.

Ogbongbemiga was one of 30 Oklahoma State football players to return to campus Monday as a part of the voluntary, on-campus workout permitted by the NCAA for the month of June. Per new university policy, Ogbongbemiga will be quarantined in separate on-campus housing and will be retested late this week and sometime next week. 

Last season, Ogbongbemiga was named second team all-Big 12 by the conference’s coaches as he had 100 total tackles, five sacks, and one interception. Ogbongbemiga is entering his redshirt senior season for the Cowboys.

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