Greece has been forced to withdraw from the artistic swimming competition, as the entire 12 members of its team — including athletes and officials — have been quarantined outside of the Olympic Village following the Games' first cluster infection, the Tokyo Organising Committee said Wednesday.
One of the Greek athletes tested positive Monday. Since then, three more athletes and one of the team officials have also tested positive, the Tokyo Organising Committee said. This marks the first time that the entire team of any nation has pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics in the middle of a competition, as artistic swimming events kicked off this week.
The outbreak also marks a big blow for Greece. According to reports from Greece, its star swimmer Evangelia Platanioti tested positive for COVID-19 last month. But the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC) said she had since recovered and arrived in Tokyo on Sunday. She and Evangelia Papazoglou participated in the duet free routine artistic swimming qualifying event on Monday but had to give up on participating in the duet technical routine the following day.