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'Absolute insanity': Olympics cops backlash after athletics 'injustice'

riley morgan
Sports Reporter
·4-min read
Amalie Iuel (pictured left) prepares before her race, Sara Slott Petersen (pictured middle) in pain after fall and Yadisleidis Pedroso (pictured right) before her race.
Athletes in the track and field events on Monday suffered horrible conditions after a downpour at the Olympics Stadium in Tokyo. (Getty Images)

Tokyo officials have copped backlash after the athletics events were held during torrential rain at the Olympics Stadium.

Remarkable images from Tokyo beamed around the world on Monday night after a number of athletic events, including the women's hurdles, pole vault and discus were held in an absolute downpour.

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The first event delayed due to the torrential downpour was the women's discus.

Unfortunately, a number of athletes were affected by the rain before the discus was postponed.

Portuguese athlete Liliana Cá was just one athlete to slip during her attempt.

Eventual gold medal winner, US athlete Valarie Allman, was seen with a number of competitors sitting under under cover as rain pelted down.

Fans called for officials to step in after feeling for the athletes in the wet.

The discus throwers had worked for five years to reach the Olympics only to encounter another hurdle at the final.

While the discus event was delayed, as officials worked to dry the technical area, the 400m hurdles went ahead.

Wild photos of athletes running and jumping in the downpour made their way around the world.

Denmark's Sara Slott Petersen clipped a hurdle before stumbling and falling in the rain.

Fans call for Olympics delay during torrential rain

The image of her in despair, lying on the track in the pouring rain, prompted many to call out Olympic officials for not halting the competition in the 'dangerous' conditions.

There has already been complaints from many athletes over events held in the middle of the day, despite the excessive heat and humidity.

The heat conditions tennis players were forced to compete in at the Tokyo Olympics caused controversy after Paula Badosa was wheeled out of her tennis match and Daniil Medvedev claimed he felt like he could 'die' out on the court.

Medvedev, along with Novak Djokovic, has been one of the vocal critics of playing the tennis schedule later in the day as temperatures soar above 31 degrees celsius in Tokyo, which is accompanied by sweltering humidity.

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