Former Japanese Olympian Murofushi urges swift decision-making at pandemic-hit Games

Japan's Sports Agency chief and Olympic gold medalist for hammer throw Koji Murofushi poses for a photograph during an interview wirh Reuters in Tokyo, Japan July 16, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Olympic gold medallist turned chief of the Japan Sports Agency, Koji Murofushi, said on Friday that Olympics organisers needed flexibility and swift decision-making in reacting to the spread in COVID-19 infections with the Games only a week away.

Murofushi, who won a gold medal in the hammer throw at the 2004 Athens Olympics and a bronze medal in 2012, had been sports director for the Tokyo Games, postponed by a year due to the pandemic, until being named chief of the sports agency, a government department, in September.