Australia's Olympic sports on COVID watch
Australia's rugby sevens squads are remaining in Townsville as the nation's Olympic sports enact contingency plans to avoid being trapped by coronavirus lockdowns.
Australia's reigning Olympic champion women's sevens squad and their men's counterparts played New Zealand and Fiji in an Oceania tournament in Townsville at the weekend.
Instead of returning home, the squads will remain in Townsville until Saturday before scheduled training camps in Darwin.
Those camps could be jeopardised if the Northern Territory government extends Darwin's current 48-hour lockdown.
Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) chief executive Matt Carroll says the sevens squads and other sports on the nation's Olympic roster all have COVID-19 contingency plans.
"We have just got to be very agile, the way we go about things, because you can plan ahead but you have got to work with what is in front of you," Carroll told AAP on Monday.
"We have been managing the challenges for 12 months now ... and as times change, you have got to keep adapting.
"Fortunately the sports have had their plans in place so when things started to go off the rails, so to speak, at the end of last week sadly with New South Wales, sports that had to go into Queensland had their COVID-safe plans in place.
"They were able to work closely with the Queensland government to ensure that could happen."
Australia's Olympic rowing team arrived in Rockhampton late last week.
Many athletes on Australia's swim team are already in Cairns before a formal training camp starting on Saturday, but some others remain training in their home states.
The AOC last week began COVID-19 testing of athletes and staffers before the Games starting July 23.
Carroll said the AOC formed plans for all associated with the Olympic team to be tested 14-days before departure and also before they entered any pre-Games training camps.
"Whether they be athletes, officials or HQ staff, they all have to get tested 14 days out," Carroll said.
"Last week some of our staff were approaching that time so they got tested, the same will happen with all the athletes.
"That is an AOC requirement, so when they move into this 14-day period which is very important for access into Tokyo, that we know that everyone is negative before they start their camps or their final preparations.
"There is another test 72 hours out (before departure for Tokyo) and then of course there is a test on arrival."
