Chinese women athletes during a competition against Iran at the 2022 Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Women's Cup on Thursday Photo: VCG

 
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. 

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.

"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.

The topic attracted more than 110 million clicks on Chinese twitter like Sina Weibo on Friday 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.

"It has made it clear that some players from other teams have been infected with COVID-19, the original intention of wearing a facial mask was to protect Chinese players. Why are some netizens so unreasonable?" one netizen wrote.

"Have a good rest and pay more attention to team players' health and safety. Come on!" another netizen wrote.

Some netizens said that it's not the first time that athletes have worn facial masks during competition as a way to protect themselves from being infected.

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 Chinese women's team lost the opening set 24-26 against Iran, but managed to level the match 1-1 in the second set 25-19. They went on to win the next two sets 25-10, 25-13. 

Global Times