While Fiji is battling one of the fastest growing coronavirus epidemics in the world, the Pacific Island Olympic team traveled on a cargo plane to Tokyo on Thursday.
Their fellow passengers? Shipment of frozen fish.
The coronavirus outbreak thwarted plans to transfer athletes to Japan by regular planes after almost all passenger flights from the country were suspended until the end of July. Only a certain number of repatriation and cargo flights are allowed to take off.
The country was attacked by the Delta variant virus, with an average of 57 daily new cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks, according to New York Times database. Just over 6 percent of the population is fully vaccinated against coronavirus.
So organizing the trip was a “logistical challenge,” Lorraine Mar, executive director of the Fiji Sports Federation and the National Olympic Committee, said Associated Press. The solution: a cargo plane hauling mostly frozen seafood, with enough passenger space for athletes and other officials.
There is a stark contrast to the more glamorous modes of transportation of other Olympians: American basketball players Devin Booker, Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton can travel to Tokyo on a private plane due to the scheduling of the conflict, while members of the British Olympic team left Heathrow Airport in London on Tuesday wearing appropriate tracksuits in the colors of his team.
Around midnight local time, about 50 athletes and officials from Fiji, including the state and men’s and women’s seven rugby teams, flew from Nadi, the main international airport, to Tokyo ahead of the Summer Games.
Prior to boarding, team members spent 96 hours in isolation and took tests 72 hours before departure, according to guidelines set by Tokyo officials. One officer of the Olympic team from Fiji who positive test for Covid-19 was withdrawn from the event.
Basics of the Summer Olympics
Ahead of the team’s departure, the country’s National Olympic Committee posted a video showing masked well-wishers waving goodbye waving to Fiji the sky-blue flag.
The country will compete in six sports, including archery, judo and table tennis. In 2016, 60 years after the country competed in the Olympics for the first time, Fiji won its first medal when the men’s rugby team triumphed in the inaugural Olympic tournament of the week in rugby in Rio de Janeiro.
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