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The Tokyo Olympics face plenty of challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic, but they are moving forward with strict protocols and safety measures in place.
Unfortunately, nothing can be perfect, and the Summer Games have had their first match canceled due to COVID-19 after a beach volleyball player from the Czech Republic tested positive ahead of her match against host nation Japan.
Markéta Sluková tested positive this week, so she and her partner, Barbora Hermannova, have been forced to withdraw from the Tokyo Games. Her husband, coach Simon Nausch, also tested positive.
“We cried, then we swore, then we cried again,” Sluková said after learning of her positive test, via CNN.com. “I am just hoping that no other athletes will follow us, because I think that something like this is a nightmare for any athlete, for any Olympian, who gets this far, this close to the Olympic competition,”
As a result, the Japanese pair of Megumi Murakami and Miki Ishii earned the victory by default. Murakami and Ishii will now have to wait to make their Olympic debut.
Sluková is now one of three members of the Czech Olympic team to test positive for COVID-19 since arriving in Japan.
