Myanmar swimmer sacrificed Tokyo Olympics dream after a brutal military coup

Everything changed in the swimmer’s homeland when the military seized power six months ago.

 Win Htet Oo has dreamed about competing in the Olympics since he was 6 years old. But when the men’s 50-meter freestyle final takes place in Tokyo late Saturday, the swimmer from Myanmar, 27, will be watching at home.

Despite a recent Olympic qualifying time and a national record, he’s boycotting the Games in protest against the military coup that overthrew his country’s elected government six months ago this weekend.

“It’s been two decades in the making, slowly training, slowly improving, aspiring to be at the level where I could represent my country,” he told NBC News from his home in Australia earlier this week.

But then everything changed in the swimmer’s homeland when the military seized power in February.

“I knew it instantly — I could not represent Myanmar — not as long as the military was in charge,” he said.

Instead, he’s hoping to help keep the world’s attention on the country and put pressure on what he calls the “hypocritical” International Olympic Committee.

From hope to despair

Win Htet Oo was born in Malaysia to parents from Myanmar. After attending college in New York, he moved to Melbourne where he has focused on his swimming.

But it was a visit to Myanmar in 2016 that made him double down on his Olympic dream. After more than 50 years of brutal military rule, a 2015 general election put Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and her party in power, seen as a major step in the country’s troubled road to democracy.

“I saw a lot of hope. I saw a lot of energy and bravery, especially in the creative arts … That really inspired me to consider what I was doing as a swimmer, as an athlete,” he recalled.

The stars looked to be aligning for Tokyo 2020, with Win Htet Oo competing at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games and securing both an Olympic qualifying time and a national record in the 50-meter freestyle event.

Then came the military coup.

“There was disbelief … I felt so hopeful that the transition to democracy was going to succeed, no matter how slow the pace was going,” Win Htet Oo said.

To the alarm of human rights groups, the military has violently crushed protests across the country in a bid to consolidate power.

More than 900 people opposing the junta have been killed by security forces, drawing international condemnation and sanctions, including from the United States.

“Six months since the coup, the military junta has arbitrarily detained thousands, killed hundreds of civilians including dozens of children, and now people are left fending a deadly pandemic on their own,” Manny Maung, a Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.

Win Htet Oo now works as a lifeguard at the pool where he trains in Melbourne, Australia.

“This shows us how utterly unprepared and unfit the military is to govern … The economy has collapsed, the health care system has collapsed and aid is not reaching the most vulnerable people.”

IOC request denied

After the coup, the military also took control of the Myanmar Olympic Committee — another reason why Win Htet Oo said there was no way he could compete in the national team.

He wrote to the International Olympic Committee and asked if he could come to Tokyo as an independent athlete. But the organization turned down his request.

With “no other options,” he withdrew from consideration before the Myanmar team was finalized.

“People need to know that the Myanmar military isn’t just another military that has taken power in some backwater, developing country,” he said.

“People think fascism is long dead after World War II, but no, it exists today in Myanmar and it’s shocking that the world continues to tolerate it.”

“This is a military that stands accused of genocide against the Rohingya and against other ethnic people in Myanmar,” he added, referencing a deadly 2017 crackdown against the Rohingya minority population in the Buddhist-majority country’s Rakhine state, which caused more than 1 million to flee.

In a statement, the IOC said the Myanmar Olympic Committee remained “the officially IOC-recognized National Olympic Committee (NOC).”

“Over the past months, the NOC has repeatedly confirmed its focus on the preparation of its team for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020,” it said. “In accordance with the Olympic Charter, any qualified/eligible athletes should be entered by their respective IOC-recognized NOCs.”

While the Myanmar Olympic Committee sent a team of seven athletes to the last Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, this time around just two are competing.

‘It’s hypocritical’

Win Htet Oo said he was deeply troubled by the IOC’s response to his request and is now calling for reform around how the organization recognizes national Olympic committees.

“They’re sticking to a political neutrality stance, even though I think the Myanmar Olympic Committee is breaching the Olympic Charter.”

“It’s hypocritical,” he said of the Olympics’ avowed aspirations to foster peace and harmony.

But experts say this is nothing new.

“What the IOC is interested in, is the financial bottom line and putting on a good show,” said Dr. Tom Heenan, who teaches sport studies at Melbourne’s Monash University.

“The Olympic Charter has noble words … But it’s all window dressing. The main aim of the Olympics is revenue for the IOC and the Olympic movement,” he said.

Myanmar has been in chaos since the military coup, with regular protests and fighting between the army and newly formed militias.

Heenan said turning a blind eye to human rights abuse is “part of the history of the IOC and the Olympic movement,” with the most egregious example being the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

The IOC has repeatedly said it must be “neutral” and stay out of politics, with its president Thomas Bach insisting earlier this year it is “not a super world government.”

It has increased its focus on human rights in recent years, with rights requirements included in the host city contract for the next Summer Games in Paris in 2024.

But it has also faced criticism over next year’s Winter Games, which will be held in Beijing amid growing international backlash against China’s treatment of its Uyghur minority, Hong Kong and Tibet.

China denies wrongdoing and its foreign ministry has criticized “the politicization of sports” and said any boycott is “doomed to failure.”

Meanwhile, Win Htet Oo is left to watch the final he dreamed of taking part in from another continent, knowing that he could have been there.

“[But] I have hope,” he said. “Let’s think about how sport can be a force for protecting fundamental human rights. This is the next big idea that the IOC and athletes need to really think about.”

The reason why golf in the Olympics is not so exciting

On the second day suspended, Matsuyama left 2 holes and a total was in the lead, provisional 3rd place (C)

The Olympic golf in which Hideki Matsuyama (29) is participating is not exciting. Even if the fact that the second day is just over is subtracted, the public's interest is low.

"because there is no ingenuity in the competition method" is golf writer Eisaburo Yoshikawa. ■ Dara Dara 4 days "Even though it is a tournament once every four years, it takes 72 holes stroke play of individual competition like Pro Tour. It takes more than half a day for one round and it takes four days to settle. There is no sense of speed or tension. Golf has returned to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years at the last Rio Games, but Mr. Yoshikawa pointed out that many people were aware of it. The International Golf Federation (IGF) also reported that it would "review the competition method" by the next Tokyo Olympics .

Since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) emphasizes TV ratings, it emphasizes the comprehensibility, visibility, and speed of the competition. That's why the basketball "3x3" with a 10-minute period system, the seven-seat rugby "Sevens" with 7 minutes each in the first and second half, and skateboarding and surfing, which are popular among young people, were adopted. At the other end of the spectrum is golf, where players are scattered in 18 holes and the competition time is long. "Still, thanks to the efforts of the industry, golf has returned to the Olympics, in order to popularize golf in the underdeveloped countries of golf in the former communist bloc," continued Mr. Yoshikawa. "While 60 men and women are eligible to participate in the Olympics, athletes up to 15th in the Olympic ranking are given the right to participate in up to 4 people from one country, and even if they are 16th or lower, up to 2 people from one country can participate, so they are ranked 300th in the world. The following players have also appeared. On the other hand, the Rio Olympics are Zika fever.5 out of the top 10 in the world are absent because of this. This time too, D. Johnson, who is in second place, and L. Westhasen, who is in eighth place, do not dislike hard schedules. Olympic golf is not the tournament that decides the best in the world. 

A few years ago, the European Tour had a two-day, six-hole tournament (12 holes in total) with the participation of two people from one country and 16 countries. At that time, there was talk of a game format that was created with the Olympics in mind. Baseball in the Olympics is available in only six countries. In any case, the way golf is played should be reconsidered. ”Before that, it may be excluded from the Olympics.

Baseball / Korea Rep. Starts off with Softbank Martinez in the first match against the United States

Kim Hyun Soo gave the first RBI. [Getty Images]

Tokyo Olympics　Baseball Competition Opening Round Korea-America> (31st, Yokohama Stadium)

4th day of the Tokyo Olympics (Tokyo Olympics) baseball competition will be held at Yokohama Stadium on the 31st. In the second match, the Korean national team and the American national team will play against each other. In Korea, the first runner, Park Hae-min, followed by Lee Jung-hoo, made the first and third bases, and the third-base runner survived between the second grounder of Kim Hyun-soo . He attacked the start of American starting Nick Martinez and suddenly scored the opening goal.

Japan is a silver medal, a new type of judo mixed team ... Loses to France 1-4 in the final

Tsukasa Yoshida (31st, at Nippon Budokan) = Ryohei Moriya, defeated by Sarah Leonie Shishike (left) in France in the 5th match of the Judo mixed team final

 At the Tokyo Olympics, the final of a new type of judo mixed team was held on the 31st, and Japan lost to France 1-4 and won the silver medal. The world championship has been held since 2017, and Japan has won the championship for the third time in a row. In the individual event, Japan mass-produced 9 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze and medals, but the endless beauty could not be displayed. The number of Japanese judo medals in this tournament was 12, which was the highest number ever in the previous Rio de Janeiro tournament.

In a mixed team, a total of 6 players, 3 men and 3 players, will play once, and the one who wins 4 wins.

　In the first match, Chizuru Arai, a 70-kilometer gold medalist in Japan, was defeated by a 63-kilometer gold medalist at the beginning of the game, losing one waza-ari in 3 minutes and 31 seconds. It was a black star start.

In the second game, I did not reach the medal in the 90 kg class MukaiMukai Shoichiro loses one at the end of the extension. Japan started losing two games in a row, just like in the quarterfinals of the first match.

　The third match is a gold medalist SoneSee youKagayakiAkira Plays against a bronze medalist of the same class. I held down from Ouchi mowing and won one.

In the fourth game, 100 kg class Wolf Aaron will face Teddy Riner, who has won four consecutive medals in the 100 kg class. At the end of the extension, he was defeated by waza-ari.

In the fifth game, Tsukasa Yoshida, a 57-kilometer class bronze, challenged the silver medalist, but in 55 seconds he was deprived of his waza-ari and lost as it was.

　Shohei Ono was scheduled to appear in the sixth match, but there was no match.

　In Japan's first quarter-final match against Germany, Uta Abe (52 kg class) lost a foul to a player in the first class. Ono was also defeated at the start of the turbulence, but from here Arai, Mukai, Sone and Wolf won four straight games. In the semi-finals, he overwhelmed the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) with 4-0.

Japan’s national football team wins a penalty shootout against New Zealand and enters the top four for the first time in two tournaments

 Tokyo Olympics 9th Day Soccer Men's Quarterfinals, Japan 0-0 New Zealand = PK4-2 (31st, Kashima Stadium) Japan will play against New Zealand, who is second in Group B. He won the fierce battle that was entangled in the penalty shootout and decided to advance to the best four for the first time in two tournaments since the 2012 London Games. Japan will play the semi-final (Saitama Stadium) with Spain on August 3rd.

Japan created repeated opportunities from the side in the first half. In the 11th minute of the first half, Japan won the right corner kick with the opponents, selected the shoot corner, and developed Doan → Kubo → Hayashi. Hayashi who received the ball goes on the right side and crosses to the far side. Endo matched this, but the shot crossed the floating goal bar. In the 31st minute of the first half, Kubo dribbled on the right side and passed to the near side. Doan, who ran in front of the goal, shot a shot but missed the goal to the right.

apan took the initiative in the second half as well. In the 24th minute of the second half, Ueda and Nakayama replaced Hayashi and Soma, and the flag bearer, who was on the left side back, moved up one position. In the 31st minute of the second half, Hashioka raised the cross from the depths of the opponents on the right side, and the flag bearer who ran to the far side matched with the heading while competing with the opponent defender. However, the shot slightly crossed the goal bar. In the 37th minute of the second half, Doan, who had the ball on the right side of the penalty area, passed in front of the goal. Free Ueda matched with his right foot but was blocked by a good save by the opponent GK Oud.

Entering overtime, Japan introduced Mitoma in place of the flag bearer. The scene where the ball was stolen in the middle stage and the counter was set was conspicuous. In the 11th minute of the first half of the extension, Kubo broke through the center vertically and tried to shoot with his right foot, but GK Oud saved with his foot. In the 12th minute of the first half of the extension, Doan dribbled from the right side to the center and finished with his left foot, but the shot crossed the goal bar. In the latter half of the extension, he replaced Doan with Miyoshi but did not shake the net.

When he entered the penalty shootout without being settled even in overtime, GK Kosei Tani read the opponent's second shot and saved it, and in the third shot, the opponent's shot floated and crossed over the bar. He won the penalty shootout 4-2.

Food fears for displaced and locked down in Myanmar’s Rakhine

Lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 have left villagers entirely reliant on donations.

 Concerns are growing over the welfare of thousands of displaced people in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State who are in lockdown after the discovery of COVID-19 in the camps and unable to get enough food to eat.

The Sin Bawkaing camp for internally displaced people (IDP), which is home to nearly 4,000 people, is the latest to be affected by the country’s accelerating COVID-19 pandemic.

The camp has been in lockdown since a woman was diagnosed with the virus on July 14, and more cases have since emerged.

“It was really shocking and I don’t know how to survive,” Win Nu, a 33-year-old mother of three told Al Jazeera by phone from the camp where she shares a small room with four members of her family. “The virus can spread easily to the whole camp.”

Six months after the military seized power from Myanmar’s elected government in a coup triggering a political and economic crisis, the country is now facing a deadly new wave of COVID-19.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry reported 4,980 new cases and 365 deaths but said it had conducted just 13,763 tests nationwide, suggesting the outbreak is much larger than officially reported. Funeral services and local media have shared higher numbers with cremations reported at 1,000 a day in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, but Al Jazeera has been unable to independently confirm the figures.

A group of displaced people cooks dinner in their camp in Buthidaung Township. More than 800 people live in the camp after being forced to flee amid the armed conflict between the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military [Supplied]

“Once a person gets infected, it is easier to transmit to other people,” said Mra Tazaung Sayadaw, a  monk who has been supporting IDPs by collecting donations since the armed conflict between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar military that forced them to leave their villages began in 2018.

The AA, established in 2009 and one of Myanmar’s numerous ethnic armed groups, wants self-determination for the people of Rakhine State, and has been fighting the Myanmar military for most of the past two years.

Before the coup, the National League for Democracy (NLD) government had called on the military, known as the Tatmadaw, to “crush” the AA, imposing the world’s longest internet shutdown, and designating the AA a “terrorist organisation”.

It also excluded the AA from its landmark peace conference and blocked humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected people.

The state had already been the location of bloody interethnic violence in 2012 when more than 130,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya were forced into camps within the state, and denied citizenship and rights such as education, freedom of movement, and healthcare under government policies.

In 2017, the military launched a brutal crackdown that forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee across the border into Bangladesh – and is now the subject of international charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Conflict, coup, COVID-19

Since the February 1 coup, little to no food aid or humanitarian assistance has reached the camps, and most IDPs have few, if any, other means of earning an income.

Many are struggling to feed themselves and their families. There are also shortages of masks, and hand sanitiser.

“Because of the military coup in Myanmar, humanitarian aid from national or international organisations was delayed as the military limited international organisations’ access to IDP camps,” Aung Hla*, a social worker from Kyauktaw Township who has been supporting the displaced people since 2018, told Al Jazeera. “Because of that, it has become more difficult to raise awareness of the COVID-19 virus, and necessary items [such as mask, soap and sanitiser] for prevention in camps.”

Across Rakhine State, there are more than 100 camps, with people often living in ​​bamboo or tarpaulin shelters or sleeping in open halls. Conditions are crowded and social distancing is difficult.

The Sin Bawkaing IDP camp, one of the largest in Rakhine State’s Mrauk-U Township, was built in March 2019 by people displaced from 20 villages in the area.

The move to lock down the camp has had a serious effect on daily life.

“Although organisations like WFP [World Food Programme] and ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] provide humanitarian relief for us, it is not enough for us now,” Nyi Pu, its camp manager told Al Jazeera by phone from the camp. “The people in the camp are at risk for food, they can’t find essential items such as fish and other ingredients including chilli, spice, and fish paste. That’s why people are now struggling.”

Nyi Pu also says there is less support for COVID-19 prevention in comparison with the first and second waves in February and August 2020.

A group of medical officers from the Mrauk-U hospital came to test people in Sin Bawkaing for COVID-19 two days after the first case was confirmed [Supplied]

“There is no support related to COVID-19 prevention right now, except some masks that were provided by local donors,” he said.

On July 20, the United League of Arakan (ULA), a political wing of the AA issued a stay-at-home order for two weeks from July 20 to August 4 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Rakhine State.

“If anyone doesn’t comply with the statement, the actions will be taken in line with COVID-19 procedures,” the statement added.

The AA, which had declared a ceasefire since the November 2020 elections, has emerged as the de facto political power in the state since the military in March removed the group’s terrorist designation and released jailed members.

“Even in the period before the coup, IDPs were more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection,” Tun Tun*, a local humanitarian worker from Buthidaung Township, told Al Jazeera. “Since the coup, it has become far worse. If the military orders stricter rules on NGOs and INGOs, people may suffer from starvation and COVID-19 infection.”

Tun Tun says the global spread of the coronavirus has already diverted attention from the Rakhine camps.

“The local and international organisations have been giving more attention to the COVID-19 response, while people in IDP camps are starving,” he said. Currently, only the WFP and the ICRC are allowed to provide support to the camps.

The Red Cross told Al Jazeera that its access to the camps in Rakhine was dependent on “travel authorisations” and that it had not been allowed into Sin Bawkaing since 2019.

Nevertheless it said it had adapted its operations to work with camp leaders and local authorities to ensure people were still receiving monthly supplies including food rations, medical items and materials such as bamboo and tarpaulin for shelter.

“Regular and reliable ICRC assistance to the population in the camp continues up to today,” said Jurg Montani, the Acting Head of Delegation in Myanmar. He stressed that the Red Cross had been allowed to operate in most of the more than 50 IDP camps in Central Rakhine, including 24 in Mrauk U township.

The Sin Bawkaing camp was sprayed with disinfectant after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed there [Supplied]

Before fighting broke out between the AA and the Tatmadaw, Win Nu worked as a daily wage labourer at a vegetable farm. After artillery attacks hit several times near her village one evening in March 2019, Win Nu fled in a boat with her son and two daughters and has not been back since.

In Sin Bawkaing, she has made a living by foraging for bamboo shoots to sell in the nearest village.

But with the lockdown, they are no longer allowed to leave in the camp, and Win Nu and the hundreds of other families living there are reliant entirely on donations.

“We are in the worst condition right now,” she said. “We eat only rice without any other dishes. We can’t do anything right now under the lockdown, we are now trying not to die.”

In 2 weeks, half of this country could be infected with COVID-19

n this July 27, 2021, file photo, ferry passengers wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk past a “Stop COVID-19” poster at the Pansodan jetty in Yangon, Myanmar.

 

 Myanmar is grappling with all three simultaneously, reported Reuters. The Southeast Asian country of 54 million people has been wracked in political turmoil for months, complicating its pandemic response and collapsing the health care system.

This week, Myanmar’s seven-day rolling per capita death rate reached 6.29 deaths per one million people — more than twice as high as the per capita death rate in India at the peak of its crisis in May, reported the AP.

COVID-19 outbreaks in Myanmar have reached a crisis point. Half of the country’s population could be infected within two weeks, according to some estimates, per Al Jazeera. But the virus outbreaks wouldn’t stop at Myanmar’s borders.

Bordering five nations, Myanmar could become a “super spreader” state, per The Guardian.

What’s going on with COVID-19 outbreaks in Myanmar?

Myanmar is currently experiencing its worst coronavirus wave yet, reported the Deseret News. Official numbers have shown a sharp rise since June, but experts widely believe that these numbers are drastic undercounts, per The Associated Press.

• Over the last two weeks, cases in Myanmar increased by 105%, reported the Deseret News.

• Thursday, Myanmar reported 5,234 new cases and 342 deaths, according to the health ministry’s statistics, reported the AP.

• Reports from medics and funeral services describe an even higher toll, reported Al Jazeera.

Cases in Myanmar are expected to continue rising drastically in the coming weeks. By one estimate from the U.K., half of Myanmar’s population — or 27 million people — could be infected with COVID-19 within the next two weeks, per Al Jazeera.

Why is COVID-19 surging in Myanmar?

The situation in Myanmar is near chaos, reported Reuters. The delta variant is surging while the health care system is collapsing.

• The junta and military government have been accused of using the pandemic to “consolidate power and crush opposition,” per the AP.

• “The military is weaponizing COVID,” said Yanghee Lee, former Myanmar human rights expert to the U.N., per the AP.

Doctors and other health care workers — many of whom participated in demonstrations protesting the military government — have been attacked or arrested, reported Al Jazeera. The military still has warrants out for hundreds of medical professionals.

By the U.N.’s estimate, only 40% of health care facilities in Myanmar are still functioning. Out of fear, some doctors have taken to treating patients in secret, reported The Guardian.

• So far, Myanmar has only vaccinated about 3.2% of its population, per Al Jazeera.

• Vaccination efforts in Myanmar face compounding difficulties since people may be hesitant of the vaccine, the military government trying to vaccinate them or both, per Reuters.

“Ongoing political tension and deep distrust between the public and the ruling military junta — which took power in February’s coup — has made a bad situation even worse,” reported the Deseret News.

What will happen in Myanmar?

This week, Myanmar’s military called for international aid for its coronavirus response. The U.K. has also pushed for the U.N. to lead a cease-fire in conflict zones of the country to ensure vaccines are delivered, reported Al Jazeera. Neither effort has gotten much traction.

• “Myanmar is becoming a super-spreader of COVID-19 with these very virulent variants,” said Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, per The Guardian.

• “COVID does not respect nationalities or borders or ideologies or political parties,” Andrews said. “It’s an equal opportunities killer.

• “This is a region that is susceptible to even greater suffering as a result of Myanmar becoming a super-spreader state,” he said.