Athletes must take their place in the vaccine queue, says Coe

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EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: CONTAINS WHITE FLASHES

VIDEO SHOWS: VIRTUAL NEWS CONFERENCE WITH THE HEAD OF WORLD ATHLETICS, SEBASTIAN COE, WITH BITES ON ATHLETES TAKING THE COVID-19 VACCINATION AND THE UPCOMING OLYMPICS IN TOKYO IN 2021 / PFIZER-BIONTECH VACCINE BEING GIVEN TO MARGARET KEENAN / PFIZER VACCINE BEING MANUFACTURED / OLYMPIC RINGS MONUMENT LIGHTING UP IN TOKYO WITH RAINBOW BRIDGE ILLUMINATED AND TOKYO TOWER IN BACKGROUND

SHOWS:

MONACO (DECEMBER 11, 2020) (WORLD ATHLETICS HANDOUT - ACCESS ALL)

1. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF WORLD ATHLETICS, SEBASTIAN COE, SAYING:

"Look, we have to also be sensitive here - there are many claims on that priority (the COVID-19 vaccine). We are all reliant upon, the vast majority of us are reliant upon well-structured and delivery of healthcare at a state level. We are all dependent on our frontline workers, our emergency services and we also recognise that there are vulnerable people in the community, and we want to make sure that we look after them as well as possible. All I'm saying is, I'm not sure it is for sport to be pressing the case for fit young people. I would like, on the other hand, that when the vaccine does become available and at the right moment the athletes have the opportunity to make use of it, that they do. But I'm not mandating it. I don't think it's my job to tell people what they should or shouldn't do in terms of that area - I think that has to be a very personal and individualistic view. And some athletes will take a view about the speed with which the vaccine has come together and all the things that the rest of the population are grappling with. I hope they do avail themselves of it, I certainly would if I had the opportunity in the lead up to a Games like that. But I think that it's very much a personal decision."

COVENTRY, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (DECEMBER 8, 2020) (UK POOL - ACCESS ALL)

2. NURSE, MAY PARSONS, INJECTING 90-YEAR-OLD, MARGARET KEENAN WITH PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE / PEOPLE APPLAUDING OFF-CAMERA

UNKNOWN LOCATION (FILE) (PFIZER HANDOUT - ACCESS ALL) (MUTE)

3. VARIOUS OF PFIZER VACCINE BEING MANUFACTURED

MONACO (DECEMBER 11, 2020) (WORLD ATHLETICS HANDOUT - ACCESS ALL)

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF WORLD ATHLETICS, SEBASTIAN COE, SAYING:

"I think the Games will go off. I was in Tokyo just, as you know, just a month or so ago and spent 48 very intensive hours there talking to the organising committee, all the government ministers responsible for delivering sections of the Games - the governor of Tokyo. There is a cast-iron determination to stage the Games. There is a recognition that we are still in uncertain territory. Yes, the vaccine will help, but I guess that for athletes in the village and maybe in terms of the process of the warmup track, to the call room, holding area, that there are going to be some adaptations there."

5. WHITE FLASH

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF WORLD ATHLETICS, SEBASTIAN COE, SAYING:

"What, of course, nobody is clearly across at the moment is whether we're going to be able to - I sincerely hope so - but whether we're going to have a stadium populated by good, noisy, passionate fans. I guess there will still be an element of social distancing. I suppose those are some of the things that are still up in the air. The athlete management in the village is something that I think the athletes are probably going to have to adapt to slightly."

7. WHITE FLASH

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT OF WORLD ATHLETICS, SEBASTIAN COE, SAYING:

"I think we should be very grateful, and I wake up grateful most days, that it is the Japanese who are dealing with this because this is a first class organising committee. We are very lucky, we have a very, very good athletics federation chaired by my good council colleague Hiroshi (Yokokawa). They have the intellectual ability and certainly the resilience to see their way through this coming six months to deliver what I think will be a fantastic Games."

TOKYO, JAPAN (FILE - DECEMBER 1, 2020) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

9. RAINBOW BRIDGE ILLUMINATED AND TOKYO TOWER IN BACKGROUND / OLYMPIC RINGS MONUMENT LIGHTING UP

10. VARIOUS OF OLYMPIC RINGS MONUMENT

11. VARIOUS OF RINGS NEXT TO RAINBOW BRIDGE

12. REFLECTION OF RINGS IN WATER / RINGS

13. RAINBOW BRIDGE / TOKYO TOWER / RINGS

14. VARIOUS OF RINGS

15. VARIOUS OF BOAT PASSING UNDERNEATH RAINBOW BRIDGE

16. OLYMPIC RINGS FROM ANGLE SO THAT OLYMPIC COLOURS SHOW / RAINBOW BRIDGE

17. BOAT NEXT TO COLOURED RINGS

18. VARIOUS OF COLOURED RINGS

19. VARIOUS OF BOAT PASSING COLOURED RINGS

20. COLOURED RINGS / RAINBOW BRIDGE

21. COLOURED RINGS

STORY: Healthy Athletes should take their place in the COVID-19 vaccine queue behind people with more pressing needs despite events such as next year's Olympics looking set to be highly dependent on competitors arriving free from the virus, the head of world athletics Seb Coe said on Friday (December 11).

Most athletes in their 20s and 30s, across all sports, would be just about last in line in most countries when it comes to handing out the vaccine but the pressure to create a COVID-safe environment at sporting events has raised the question of whether they should be treated as a special case.

Coe trod a careful line when asked about the issue at a media conference on Friday. "We have to be sensitive here - there are many claims on that priority," he said.

"Most of us are dependent on our frontline workers and our emergency services and we also recognise that there are vulnerable people in the community and we want to make sure that we look after them as much as possible.

"I'm not sure that it is for sport to be pressing the case for fit young people. I would like, on the other hand, that when the vaccine does become available and that the athletes have the opportunity to make use of it that they do.

"I'm not mandating it and I don't think it's my job to tell people what they should or shouldn't do in that area - I think that has to be a very personal and individualistic view.

"I hope they do avail themselves of it, I certainly would if I had the opportunity in the lead up to a Games like that, but it's very much a personal decision."

Coe, who won double Olympic gold over 1,500 metres and was the driving force behind Britain's hosting of the 2012 Games, was confident next year's Tokyo event, postponed from 2020, would go ahead, and said that if any country could respond to the challenge of a re-arranged Olympics it was Japan.

"I think the Games will go off. I was in Tokyo a week ago and spent 48 very intensive hours talking to the organising committee and the government," he said.

"There is a cast-iron determination to stage the Games, though there is a recognition that we are still in uncertain territory. Yes, the vaccine will help, but I guess for athletes in the village and warm up track etc, there are going to be some adaptations.

"What nobody is across at the moment - and I certainly hope it happens - is whether we are going to have a stadium populated by good, passionate fans. Those are some of the things that are up in the air, along with athlete management in the village.

"I think we should be very grateful, and I wake up grateful most days, that it's the Japanese who are dealing with this because this is a first class organising committee.

"They have the intellectual ability and certainly the resilience to see their way through this coming six months to deliver what I think will be a fantastic Games."

(Production: Kurt Michael Hall)