对此，中国排协回应称，由于临场经验不足，“没及时提醒上场运动员摘掉口罩”，并表示“对大家对女排的关心深表感谢”，对“工作不够细致给大家带来的困扰诚恳道歉”。
The China Volleyball Association apologized on Friday for failing to remind players to remove their facial masks in time after the women's team triggered a wide discussion online for wearing N95 facial masks during their 2022 Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Women's Cup victory over Iran.
In the first set of the group matches against Iran on Thursday, Chinese players wore facial masks, which triggered a strong public reaction. The association thanked the public's concern for women's team and apologized for triggering the controversy.
Following a 3-1 victory over Team Iran on Thursday, Team China came out on top in Group A of the 2022 AVC Women's Cup.
The topic attracted more than 2.1 million clicks on Sina Weibo as of press time. Some netizens argued the move put athletes' health at risk during high-intensity competition. Some expressed their understanding that athletes had to protect themselves from being infected with COVID-19.
“Before the competition, the team has learned that some athletes in other teams had been infected with COVID-19, and some of our players also had symptoms; we required all athletes to wear masks when entering competition venues in order to protect players from being infected,” the association stated in explaining why the players wore facial masks. As the organizing committee has not made clear regulations on whether athletes should wear facial masks during competition, athletes were free to choose, according to the association.
The association said it failed to remind players to remove facial masks in time due to a lack of experience. In the second half of the first set, they realized that it’s harmful for the players’ health with a facial mask in the competition, and asked all players to take off their masks, the association said.
The association said they will learn from the incident and appropriately arrange competitions and training amid the ongoing pandemic under the premise of protecting the health of the athletes.
For Brazilian volleyball player Lucas Saatkamp, the decision to wear a mask at the Tokyo Olympics is about protecting his family. With a 5-year-old son back home in Brazil who needs to use an inhaler because of respiratory issues, the last thing the player known as Lucão wants to do is endanger his son, wife and newborn daughter.
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