The Australian Olympic Team has experienced its biggest influx of the Tokyo Olympic Games on Saturday with 340 athletes, staff and officials arriving into the Australian Team allotment.
In all, 340 athletes and officials entered the Village for the first time. There are now 243 Australian athletes on the ground in Japan.
The big lift saw athletes arrive via a Qantas Charter flight from Brisbane and Cairns with 219 athletes, staff and officials on board, with other Team members arriving on commercial international and domestic flights as well as ground transport.
Teams Arriving Saturday 17 July 2021
- Qantas Charter: Swimming, Rowing, Hockey, Women’s Water Polo, Men’s Beach Volleyball, Badminton, Table Tennis, Weightlifting.
- International flights: Skateboard, Road Cycling, Artistic Gymnastics, Tennis.
- Domestic Flights - Women’s Football
- Bus - Softball
There are now 194 athletes in the Village with a further 49 athletes in subsites/ out of village accommodation or training camps.
Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman says the Team has arrived to a warm welcome and an Australian allotment designed to create a home away from home atmosphere.
“An enormous amount of work has gone into creating a space for our athletes that is welcoming and friendly as well as meeting those practical needs to promote their best performance. The place is now buzzing.
“We have been very conscious that while these Games are different, the experience in our allotment had to be positive. Each team receives a full briefing on arrival, including details of our COVID counter-measures that are particular to our space, on top of the playbook protocols.”
For softballer and first time Olympian Ellen Roberts, having spent more than six weeks in Japan at a pre-Game camp in Ota City it was a different ballgame arriving in the Tokyo Olympic Village.
“We’ve been away for six weeks now preparing for the Olympics, so arriving at the Village and being greeted by so many Australians really made us feel at home.
“It was a really warm welcome by the AOC and has given us a bit of a spring in our step to keep pushing for a Gold Medal,” she said.
Today the women’s Beach Volleyball Team will arrive via an international commercial flight.
Another large athlete arrival will occur tomorrow, with athletes from Rugby, men’s Water Polo, Athletics, Tennis, Triathlon, Shooting, Boxing and Diving entering the country.
