WASHINGTON: A US athlete slated to participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games expressed disappointment over being barred from interacting with the local community during the sporting event, in a recent interview with Jiji Press.

“We’ve been told that we’re not going to be allowed to leave the (athletes’) village, like to go and explore Tokyo,” Lucas Kozeniesky, who will compete in the 10-meter air rifle event, said. “I want to experience what the local culture is.”

Athletes are barred from traveling around freely in Japan as a measure against novel coronavirus infections.

Kozeniesky, 26, is a son of former Col. Craig Kozeniesky, who was previously a commanding officer at the US Marines’ Camp Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan.

In the immediate aftermath of the 2011 major earthquake and tsunami that mainly hit northeastern Japan, the elder Kozeniesky urged the US top brass to offer aid to disaster-stricken regions. He himself worked to restore Sendai Airport in Miyagi Prefecture as part of the US armed forces’ Operation Tomodachi disaster relief mission.

“My dad has…been stationed in Japan three times, and he’s loved it,” Lucas Kozeniesky said, expressing his wish to explore Japanese culture, especially its food, during his first visit to Japan.

“When I went to Brazil five years ago (for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics), the best thing about the games was meeting the people,” he said. In Tokyo, however, he said regretfully that his movement will be restricted to the athletes’ village and the event venue.

Kozeniesky also touched on the possibility of some of his rival athletes deciding not to participate in the Tokyo Olympics, as well as the mounting concerns about whether the games can be pulled off successfully with the COVID-19 epidemic raging in Japan when there are only a few weeks left before the opening ceremony.

“It’s kind of a weird Olympics,” the athlete said.

He added: “I’m not too bothered by it. We’ve been living in a year of uncertainty anyway.”

Kozeniesky said that he was thankful for all of the preparations in Japan for the Olympic Games.

“From what I heard, I know that Japanese people can go and spectate the games, so they’re allowed to go and enjoy and witness and see,” he said. “I look forward to that because that’s going to be…our only time being able to interact with the people.”

“If that’s the only little piece of (the Japanese culture) that I can see, then that’d be great,” he noted.

JIJI Press