Olympic digest

Chinese boxers taking swing at Tokyo golds

China's Olympic boxing team has arrived in Tokyo with designs on winning gold.

The six Chinese boxers at Tokyo 2020 are Hu Jianguan (men's 52kg), Tuohetaerbieke Tanglatihan (men's 75kg), Chen Daxiang (men's 81kg), Chang Yuan (women's 51kg), Gu Hong (women's 69kg) and Li Qian (women's 75kg).

Hu and Li both won bronze medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics. "The bronze medal gave me confidence, and I feel in better shape and more relaxed for Tokyo. I want a gold this time," said Li.

Hu is also hoping to improve on his Rio result. In his final Olympic qualifier, he knocked out Thailand's Thitisan Panmot, who himself had knocked out 2016 Rio Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov in the semifinal.

"We will do our best to win the gold medal with morality and style in Tokyo," Hu said.

China has traditionally enjoyed plenty of success in the women's 51kg category. Ren Cancan won silver and bronze in London and Rio respectively. Chang Yuan was Ren's training partner in Rio. "I will try my best for the gold medal. I believe in myself, my coach and my team," Chang said.

The women's 69kg is a new category for Tokyo 2020, with Gu Hong carrying China's medal hopes.

To date, the Chinese boxing team has won three Olympic gold medals in total.

Nation's rowing team going with the flow

China's rowing team is fine-tuning its final preparations for the Tokyo Games after arriving in Tokyo last Saturday.

The 45-strong team, including 30 rowers, will compete in eight events in the Olympic Rowing Regatta, which takes place from July 23-30 at Sea Forest Waterway, Tokyo Bay.

China won its first Olympic rowing gold at the 2008 Beijing Games, and collected one silver at London 2012 and two bronzes four years later in Rio. The team has set a target of one gold in Tokyo.

Zhang Zhiyuan, Chen Sensen, Lyu Fanpu and Zeng Tao won gold in the men's lightweight quadruple sculls at the 2019 world championships, and have remained unbeaten since then.

Zhang Liang and Liu Zhiyu, who won the men's double sculls title at the 2019 worlds, are also rated strong contenders in Tokyo.

"We are fine-tuning for the Games, taking into consideration temperature, water current, and wind direction at the venue, Sea Forest Waterway," said Xu Quan, coach of the Chinese rowing team.

"Our athletes are in good form, and we are full of confidence."

Athletes' village still safe: IOC health advisor

A health advisor for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) insisted on Monday that the Olympic Village is safe despite more positive COVID-19 cases being reported among Tokyo 2020 personnel.

Brian McCloskey, who is advising the IOC on COVID-19 countermeasures, told a media conference that individual infections are to be expected and are lower than initially imagined at this stage.

According to Tokyo 2020 organizers, 58 positive coronavirus cases related to the Games, including four athletes, had been reported as of Monday since July 1.

McCloskey gave a firm "yes" when asked if the Olympic Village is still safe with the rising number of virus infections.

"We see cases currently having been tested before departure, and they're not coming... we see people at the airport and they can get filtered there and they can get filtered when they get to the village," he said. "Each layer of filtering acts as a reduction of risk for anybody else."

Pool great Phelps to work as commentator

Michael Phelps will be part of NBC's Olympics coverage as a correspondent and swimming commentator, the network announced on Monday.

Phelps－who has won the most medals (28) and gold medals (23) in Olympic history－will call selected swimming events with Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines and contribute features as a correspondent during prime-time coverage.

The 36-year-old, who swam in five Games for the United States from 2000-16, did some work for NBC during its coverage of last month's US swimming trials.

"I know he's going to offer some incredible insight on especially those races that he has won so many gold medals in," Gaines said during a teleconference.

A three-part retrospective on Phelps' career is streaming on NBC's Peacock platform.

LaVine enters protocol, not on Team USA flight

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine was placed into COVID-19 safety protocols on Monday and did not join his US Olympic basketball teammates in traveling to Japan for the Olympics.

USA Basketball said it hopes LaVine will be able to travel to Tokyo later this week and join his fellow NBA stars in time for Sunday's Olympic opener against France.

A USA Basketball statement said LaVine did not travel with the team "out of an abundance of caution" after starting COVID-19 health and safety measures, but did not say if he contracted the virus or was being kept back for contact tracing.

LaVine scored 13 points for the Americans on Sunday in an 83-76 exhibition victory over reigning Basketball World Cup champion Spain in Las Vegas.

The US squad has already lost Washington guard Bradley Beal after he was placed into COVID-19 protocols and center Kevin Love to a calf injury.

The Americans added Denver Nuggets center JaVale McGee and San Antonio Spurs guard Keldon Johnson to replace Beal and Love.

Six Polish swimmers return due to error

Six Polish swimmers have had to return from Japan even before the start of the Olympics after the Polish Swimming Federation (PZP) sent too many athletes because of an administrative error.

The swimmers returned to Poland on Sunday, threatening legal action and calling for the head of the PZP to resign over the incident.

The swimming team sent to Japan numbered 23 people.

"I would like to express my great regret, sadness and bitterness at the situation," PZP director Pawel Slominski said in a statement.

Slominski admitted the mistake but said it had been motivated by a desire to "allow as many athletes and coaches as possible to take part".

One of the six, Alicja Tchorz, wrote a Facebook post attacking the "incompetence" of the PZP, saying it had "misunderstood the rules".

"Imagine that you sacrifice five years of your life and... your sacrifice results in a total flop," said Tchorz, who took part in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Xinhua