Officials searching for Ugandan athlete missing near Olympic training camp

Officials announced that a Ugandan weight lifter who had been staying in western Japan was missing on Friday.

The New York Times and Japanese Kyodo news agency report that 20-year-old athlete Julius Ssekitoleko was reported missing from his hotel located close to a nearby training camp around noon local time on Friday after he did not show up for coronavirus testing. 

Kyodo, citing Izumisano officials, reported that a teammate had last seen Ssekitoleko around 12:30 a.m. local time. Police are conducting a search into his whereabouts.

The athlete was one of nine Ugandan players staying in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture, since June, The New York Times reported.

In a statement to The Hill, Tokyo 2020’s press office said, “Tokyo 2020 is aware of the case in Izumisano City. We understand that Izumisano City has been searching for the person who has gone missing. We hope the person will be found very soon.”

According to the president of the Uganda Weightlifting Federation, Salim Musoke, the athlete was scheduled to fly back to Uganda on July 20 since he did not qualify for the Olympics, the Times reported.

Organizers for the international games have already tried to implement rules to limit the amount of contact between those participating in the Olympics and Japanese residents as Tokyo continues to report high numbers of COVID-19 cases. For athletes who trained outside of the country, they are only allowed in hotels and training facilities, the Times reported.

Tokyo’s coronavirus cases hit a six-month high earlier this week at 1,308 cases — the most since late January, according to The Associated Press. The city went into a fourth state of emergency on Monday, and organizers had recently announced that spectators were banned from the Olympics.