WEIGHTLIFTERS TO STAY HOME

2 July 2021

The decision not to send our qualified weightlifting team to the Tokyo Olympics must have been tough.

The team were ready for the Olympic Games originally scheduled to be held in 2020. These Games were postponed at the height of the global pandemic. Since then the team has not just maintained their training but pushed through and are now consideted to be even better prepared for this world level competition. Tuaopepe Jerry Wallwork believes this is perhaps the best weightlifting team Samoa has ever fielded in international sport and includes a number of certain medal winners.

However in spite of maintaining a rigorous training, dieting and exercise regime the athletes will remain at home. We will never know just how good they are and those athletes will not get the international recognition and glory for which they have worked so hard.

The caretaker government has decided not to send any teams from Samoa to Tokyo. It appears that SASNOC was caught a little on the back foot and was to meet yesterday to discuss the implications of the government's decision. However before the government's decision was announced there were already signs that no athletes would depart from Samoa. The primary reason is that Japan has many and increasing active cases of Covid. While the International Olympic Committee are talking it down, many Japanese citizens are protesting against the Games being held at all.

With athletes, coaches, managers and officials attending from all parts of the world the risk is considered just too great. Another reason for the cancellation of the Samoan contingent (and as a further consequence of the Covid pandemic), any Samoan team could find itself stranded on its return. While it was possible to make the necessary connecting flights inbound for Tokyo there were no such flights for their return.

This would not be the first time which Samoan athletes would find themselves stranded in a foreign country. The Manu Samoan 7's and Manusina 7's currently off loaded in Dubai is a case in point. The risk is not just to the athletes which must be the priority of SASNOC.

The risk is also to the country as a whole which has remained essentially Covid free due to strict border controls. The Olympics is seen as the pinnacle of sporting achievement. Just qualifying comes after years of practice, pain, dedication, sacrifice and support from family, coaches and friends. To have this perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity snatched away for reasons totally beyond their control must be truly disheartening. For the weightlifting team to be better prepared after a year's postponement of the Olympics is testimony to the tenacity of their coach and to the lifters themselves.

We regret that we will not be able to share their glory on the international stage in Tokyo.