Situation should be carefully monitored: Bindra on coronavirus threat to Olympics

Gurgaon, March 4: India's champion shooter Abhinav Bindra on Wednesday said the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak has to be carefully and constantly monitored in the run-up to the Tokyo Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday unequivocally backed this summer's Tokyo Olympics, urging athletes to prepare "full steam" despite the coronavirus threat.

The novel coronavirus has so far claimed over 3,000 lives and infected more than 94000 people across the world after being first detected in Wuhan, China.

"It is a situation which has to be monitored, a decision can't be taken today. It is a question of monitoring the whole situation very carefully and which is being done," Bindra said on the sidelines of an event here.

"The situation is being monitored. The Olympics Games are scheduled, July 24th is the opening ceremony, so there is still time. It is being monitored by the IOC, the WHO and they are the best people who would come to a final decision whether it is safe to go ahead with or not. But, obviously, the situation remains fluid," India's lone individual Olympic gold medallist added.

The athlete was speaking after Daivam Wellness, India's first functional medicine centre, tied up with the Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance (ABTP) with an aim to better the lives of both athletes and non-athletes.

He is trying to ensure the best global practices in either prevention of injuries or treatment of injuries are accessible to the people at large. "One of the big things what we do is actually what is missing in India, when I was training with... we actually, normally, treat for symptoms and don't really go down to the root cause of the problem and that's exactly what I was trying to change and that's exactly what Daivam is doing."