Local officials are searching for a Ugandan athlete who went missing in western Japan on Friday in a case raising questions over Japanese organizers’ oversight of Olympic participants amid local coronavirus concerns .
The missing 20-year-old man was training as part of the nine-member Ugandan team in Izumisano, Osaka prefecture, city officials said.
Teammates realized the athlete was absent around noon Friday when his saliva test sample was not delivered and they found his hotel room empty, city officials said. There was no training Friday morning and he was last seen in his room in the early hours of Friday.
After failing to find him inside the hotel, officials notified police for a broader search. There was no 24-hour monitoring at the hotel, and exactly when or how he got out of the hotel was unknown, officials said.
Local officials are searching for a Ugandan athlete who went missing in western Japan on Friday in a case raising questions over Japanese organizers’ oversight of Olympic participants amid local coronavirus concerns .
The missing 20-year-old man was training as part of the nine-member Ugandan team in Izumisano, Osaka prefecture, city officials said.
Teammates realized the athlete was absent around noon Friday when his saliva test sample was not delivered and they found his hotel room empty, city officials said. There was no training Friday morning and he was last seen in his room in the early hours of Friday.
After failing to find him inside the hotel, officials notified police for a broader search. There was no 24-hour monitoring at the hotel, and exactly when or how he got out of the hotel was unknown, officials said.
On their arrival on June 19 at Narita International Airport, a member of the team tested positive and was quarantined there, while the remaining eight members were allowed to travel more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) on a chartered bus to Izumisano, their pre-Olympics camp in the western prefecture of Osaka.
Days later, a second member of the team from East Africa tested positive for the virus, forcing seven town officials and drivers who had close contact with the team to self-isolate. Health officials said both infected Ugandans had the delta variant.
Both team members have since ended their quarantine requirement and the team has been training since July 7.