Tokyo Olympics to be special for athletes: Australian Chef de Mission

CANBERRA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming Tokyo Olympics will be a special moment in the career of athletes, said Ian Chesterman, Chef de Mission of Team Australian, on Monday.

The Australian Olympic Committee announced on Monday a team of 472 athletes to compete in Tokyo, including 254 women and 218 men. It is the second-largest team from Australia to the Olympics, not on its own land, just short of the 482 athletes to the Athens Games in 2004.

During the Sydney Games in 2000, a total of 632 Australian athletes were on its team.

At a virtual press conference, Chesterman told reporters no medal targets were set this time. "Given the events of the past 18 months, this has been the correct path," he said. "Getting to the start line has been so difficult."

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought uncertainties to the preparation of the Olympics and athletes. The Australian softball squad landed in Japan on June 1 as the first group of competitors to arrive for the Games.

Among all the athletes from Australia, more than 62 percent are attending their first Games.

When asked by Xinhua if there could be special motivation this year for the athletes, Chesterman said: "I think that's gonna be an exciting time."

"Overall, we have been very fortunate with our preparation in Australia," he said. "Being able to train consistently across the last 15 months, which most of our athletes have been able to do, has been a real plus."

However, he noted that some of their competitors might have had real opportunities to compete, which many Australian athletes missed out.

"We've also had some athletes who had to do a hard way to qualify because of the need to travel on the difficulties in getting out of and back into Australia," the official added.

Therefore, he believed that it would be hard to predict the team's performance at the Games.

"But...you're seeing Olympic Games where athletes were rejoicing the opportunity to showcase their abilities in front of the global audiences as we watch them on TV."