(ATR) International Canoe Federation president José Perurena has tested positive for corona virus.
Perurena was admitted to a hospital in Madrid, his hometown earlier this week.
Perurena told Around The Rings through WhatsApp that "when the fever shot above 39 degrees they tested me and it was positive."
Before his hospital admission, Perurena, 74, had spent two weeks of confinement at home due to the state of alarm decreed by the Spanish Government.
Perurena is the first Olympic sport federation president known to have contracted the corona illness. Prince Albert of Monaco is the only member of the IOC known to have a positive test for corona, but he is not hospitalized.
Perurena was unable to participate in the IOC videoconference with the 33 presidents of international federations held on Thursday regarding the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.
The meeting led by IOC President Thomas Bach, together with his Task Force for the postponed Tokyo Olympics, seeks as a first urgent decision to define the new dates for the Olympic event in 2021.
Bach opened the videoconference this Thursday with the federations and then with about 84 IOC members. ATR is told the teleconferences lasted about three hours.
Perurena is also president of the International Association of the World Games.
In his dual capacity as an international sports leader, he is waiting for the announcement of the new date for the Tokyo Olympics to make possible readjustments in the events of the two sports organizations he directs.
The World Games will be held in Birmingham, Alabama in the summer of 2021.
Regarding canoeing, he assured that "we already have the classification done."
For the pending Olympic Games, he says rankings in Asia from the 2019 World Cups, Europe with the continental Games in Minsk and in the Americas with Pan American Games, will be used.
"But if these continents prefer, they are free to organize qualifying championships," Perurena said.
Perurena, an Olympic kayak competitor at the 1968 Mexico Games, has been president of the International Canoe Federation since 2008.
In July 2011 he became a member of the IOC. In April 2014 he was elected President of the International World Games Association.
In August 2015, after exceeding the 70-year age limit, he was granted a four-year extension to the IOC linked to his IWGA presidency. He stepped down from the IOC on December 31, 2019.
This Friday Spain confirmed 64,059 positive cases of corona virus and 4,858 deaths. The Community of Madrid registers 2,412 deaths, almost half of those registered in all of Spain.
Reported by Miguel Hernandez .
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