(Bloomberg) -- Moving ahead with the Olympics this summer in Tokyo would be “insensitive and irresponsible,” according to Canadian ice hockey player and International Olympic Committee member Hayley Wickenheiser.
In the most direct comments yet by an IOC member, Wickenheiser said on her Twitter account that the games shouldn't be held.
“Athletes can't train,” she said. “Attendees can't travel plan. Sponsors and marketers can't market with any degree of sensitivity.”
Wickenheiser sits on the IOC athlete committee, and is a former member of its medical committee. Her comments come just hours after the IOC's executive board, of which she is not a member, said it remained dedicated to holding the 2020 Summer Games from July 24 to Aug. 9.
That said, the IOC's tone around the event is changing. After weeks of refusing to entertain the idea that the games might be disrupted, the executive board on Tuesday softened its tone significantly. It acknowledged an “unprecedented situation,” and one that is “changing day by day.”
Planning for the Tokyo Games has been underway for a decade. The games have a direct budget of nearly $6 billion, with some 11,000 athletes and 600,000 spectators expected to attend.
Wickenheiser participated in five Winter Games as an athlete, winning gold medals in 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014, and silver in 1998. She also competed in the 2000 Summer Games in softball.
“I can only imagine and try to empathize with the anxiety and heartbreak athletes are feeling right now,” she said. “The uncertainty of not knowing where you're going to train tomorrow, as facilities close and qualification events are canceled all over the world, would be terrible if you've been training your whole life for this.”
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