Guinea won’t be participating in the Olympics after all.
The African nation officially backed out of the Tokyo Games, and cited the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as its reasoning.
Bantama Sow, the Guinea Minister of Sports, wrote a letter explaining the move to the president of the Guinean Olympic committee on Wednesday.
“Due to the resurgence of COVID variants, the government, concerned with preserving the health of Guinean athletes, has decided with regret to cancel Guinea’s participation in the 32nd Olympics scheduled for Tokyo,” the statement said, via The Associated Press.
While the country officially cited the pandemic, the AFP reported that funding for the athletes and the rest of the delegation was a significant issue, too.