BOA chief executive Andy Anson has admitted that some Team GB athletes are refusing to get vaccinated before Tokyo 2020 ©The Sports Desk Podcast

British Olympic Association (BOA) chief executive Andy Anson has admitted that some members of Team GB are refusing to get vaccinated for coronavirus before they leave for Tokyo 2020.

The admission comes only two weeks after BOA chairman Sir Hugh Robertson had tried to reassure worried Japanese officials that they would "do everything we can to get the entire team fully vaccinated before we depart for Japan".

Anson revealed that "well over 90 per cent" of the 370-plus British athletes expected to compete at Tokyo 2020 will have two vaccine doses by the time of the Olympics, which is due to open on July 23.

But he conceded that "there are individuals who didn't want to be vaccinated".

"We're trying to convince them it's the right thing to do," Anson told the BBC's The Sports Desk Podcast.

"People have got the right to choose, and we have to respect that.

"But it's not necessarily that helpful.

"There's been some difficulties with some athletes who have been travelling around the continent.

"I'm pretty sure that nearly everyone will have at least one dose.

"We'll keep trying right until the last minute."

BOA chief executive Andy Anson is confident that 90 per cent of Team GB's squad for Tokyo 2020 will be fully vaccinated ©Getty Images
BOA chief executive Andy Anson is confident that 90 per cent of Team GB's squad for Tokyo 2020 will be fully vaccinated ©Getty Images

Britain is currently on the red list in Japan due to the spread of the Delta variant - the mutant strain of COVID-19 first identified in India - and Sir Hugh had written to Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto to offer assurances.

Team GB athletes and staff were "doing everything possible to minimise any risk to the people of Japan in the lead-up to the Olympic Games," Sir Hugh wrote.

Coronavirus cases have declined dramatically in Tokyo recently - the average number of cases for the past seven days is 423 - but there remains public opposition to staging the Games in the middle of a pandemic.

Anson has admitted the Olympics will present serious health challenges to Team GB and everyone else competing at Tokyo 2020.

"Eleven thousand athletes basically sharing one dining hall, that's the challenge," he told The Sports Desk Podcast. 

"So, we are putting in place very strict protocols along with [the organisers] to make sure, to the fullest extent possible, we follow the rules of isolation, distancing, and just keeping in our own ‘semi bubbles’.

"We will eat together - we won't be mixing in the village like people normally would.

"So that's the tough bit.

"But we're confident that we've got enough people around from a medical perspective to make sure that environment is as safe as it possibly can be."