The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© KYODOMissing Ugandan athlete leaves note saying he wants to work in Japan
OSAKA©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© KYODO
70 Comments
Login to comment
Tobia
Did a runner?
virusrex
How can we trust the authorities when they say they can have complete control of the situation in the olympics when an athlete that was supposed to be isolated goes missing?
Of course I hope he is safe and without problems and that he can be found soon, maybe just some misunderstanding, but if he can go missing then it is likely many others have gone around (increase the risk of exposure to the virus) without being discovered.
jiji Xx
TobiaToday 04:30 pm JST
.... yes, but he'll be for the high jump if they catch him. groan!
Cricky
But didn’t they sign a pledge?
must know a pledge in Japan is meaningless.
GrungeHamster
Safe and secure Olympics all right. Can’t even keep track of a single person.
Jim
Someone should ask Bach - he said ZERO risk - what is his comment for this latest news?
vendingmachinemusic
I thought he had the GPS tracking app on his phone as required by the Olympic rules.
vendingmachinemusic
I thought the Vaccine had a microchip to track him on 5G.
vendingmachinemusic
Anyone check amemura?
Yubaru
Nah, that's just for show, and the first 3 or 4 days they are in country, according to a member of the international broadcast team anyway!
Antiquesaving
It makes me remember back when eastern European Athletes would "disappear" at the Olympics in western countries, evading their team "chaperones" only to resurface after the games were over and their country's team left and requesting asylum!
Darius Black
This always happens. London 2012 also.
ulysses
This happens at almost every Olympics and a lot of international sporting events.
Might be difficult to stay hidden in Japan for long though!!!
Joanne
Cases like this will increase gradually and a lot of foreign athletes will become illegal residents in Japan! It will only make it more tough for legal residents who will be scrutinized by officials through regular checks of resident cards every time they are outdoors! It’s just pathetic that the authorities can’t even control the movement of one single athlete and thousands more to arrive in the days ahead! GARBAGE OLYMPICS!
Cricky
In other news the stand down time after a test before a completion has been cut to six hrs, so this athlete might not have got the message, maybe during a practice training session took a run, got lost and, it happens at many major events. Forrest Gump I think was his name actually ran out of the stadium by mistake in on documentary I watched.
Cricky
Jim I saw that, I call it Olympic* blocking
*indicates not a event that holds any merit
Sven Asai
Wait a bit, if something happens and ever gets caught he’s only 19. lol
Meiyouwenti
He won’t be missing much longer. Can’t speak the language. A suspicious looking and behaving African person can’t mingle with the locals.
Garthgoyle
Missing as in something bad happened to him or as in they can't locate his whereabouts coz he's skipping Covid measures?
kurisupisu
I might want to get out of Izumisano too-
he’s probably in Sakai (much nicer) down the road or up in Osaka.
snowymountainhell
Hope he’s healthy & safe. Btw: Thanks for the Reagan/Gorbachev era ‘nostalgia(? for lack of a better word) @Antiquesavings 5pm;
Cricky
When is a Olympic* bubble not a bubble?
a) when people hide in musical instrument boxes and shuffle out while security are at lunch.
b) when you can just walk out
Think the bubble might have burst.
denotes Tokyo Olympics.snowymountainhell
Also recall that docudrama as well @cricky 5:18pm. One of the U.S.’s Nixon-era premier bi-athletes, oddly training to compete in both table-tennis and marathon running after a remarkable career in Am. college football. He also ran out of the stadium never to return to sports:
spinningplates
I've complained enough about the Olympics, so much so that I'm trying not to give them any more attention. But, in light of Back's recent ridiculous comments this really warrants an extra voice of dissent.
I hope the athlete is O.K.
But seriously...they were allowed to just...wander off alone?
The only bubble is the one in Bach's bathtub as he wallows in money laughing his backside off. But who can blame him, really? When he first talked with Abe his eyes must have lit up with $ signs, and then appontment of the imbecile Suga was just icing on the cake.
The most stupid, wasteful and stubbornly inept Government ever to hold office is solely responsible for all of this.
snowymountainhell
Please don’t give up *NOW *@spinningplates 6:16pm:
Like this Ugandan’s story, these daily, unfolding ‘sideline dramas’ and ‘Cinderella stories’ will be the ‘true history’ of Japan’s 2020-21 Olympic ‘Games’. (Of course, before the revisionists get a hold of it for their jr high school history books.)
Paul
Maybe he is afraid of catching COVID at the Olympics and decided to do a runner...
n1k1
Did they check Roppongi ?
snowymountainhell
Perhaps care more for a human being’s welfare & overall character than their outer appearance?
Think you’re being funny with* 3 *exclamation points? (sad, just sad). - He’s a human being.
Mark
Absolutely shameful! A joke to everybody overseas reading about this! Image down!
snowymountainhell
Some additional concerns now: is this the same “ Julius Ssekitoleko ”, 17yr ok’d Ugandan weightlifter who went missing in Australia in 2018?
https://ugandaradionetwork.net/story/two-weighlifters-vanish-in-australia?districtId=730
Oxycodin
Hell breaking loose here in Tokyo and everything going down south at this rate
kokontozai
I hope he will not commit a crime in Japan.
Tokyoite
And why would you be specifically worried about that I wonder?
GW
bach is clearly on the HOOK for this one!!!!!
Tokyo-Engr
The Japanese government has blatantly indicated they do not care at all about the Japanese citizens due to the fact that against the wishes of 80% of the Japanese citizens they are pushing forward with the Olympics.
That considered this Ugandan athlete probably recogizes that the government here ignores the wishes of the citizens and figures "what the heck? the government does not care so why not make a run?". In his mind Japan appears to operate like a 3rd world dictatorship so he figures he will take his chances, try to blend in, and let the chips fall where they may.
Was he right in taking a runner? Probably not...
Will he get caught?.....eventually yes
Pokus Hokus
Nigerian mafia ??
I guess he’s handing out flyers in Harajuku and Kabukicho.
kurisupisu
Nah, he’s done at KIX trying to get home…
Tokyo-Engr
Haha maybe....does not matter anyway. The IOC, the JOC, the Japanese government, and those that support the Olympics here do not care at anything at all about the citizens of Japan so why should he? does not matter so much....
Hope he at least has a good time.
El Rata
If the Ugandan bloke thinks he can escape then claim asylum and get it, he's in for a shock. Japan doesn't even grant asylum to legitimate asylum seekers.
Designer 02
What I don't understand is how someone can get from Narita to Osaka with 'no contact with locals'
CKAI
Huh? Kid's from Uganda though...
Flyers???! What Ugandan flyers? Let's get to the punchline ??
Nickee
The same athlete vanished few years ago in Australia. So I think it's a bad attitude of him to disappear in a foreign country...
NOMINATION
Selling fake hip hop fashion and trying to pretend they are from NYC? lol
vendingmachinemusic
Gonna pull a Ghosn I bet. We know Peter and Michael Taylor are here in Japan at this very moment and are used to doing this sort of thing.
Bjorn Tomention
All the moderation tonight is over the top , not just on this thread but have you seen the other threads all shut down anything to do with the olympics must be political correct or they shut down, coz this site is so god damn PC to attract the advertising $s and the right image , it isnt about the right thing at all , the mods need to take a look at them selves.
Censorship does not rule !!
Ask the masses !
They do not want any negative about the olympic or the athletes coz its not good for their image or advertising campaigns.
How about public opinion and righteousness ?
Delete this who cares I dont even read the spam the mods send Never have never will., its dribble ...................................
snowymountainhell
@kurisupisu 10:05pm what’s up with this?:
is this the same “ Julius Ssekitoleko ”, 17yr ok’d Ugandan weightlifter who went missing in Australia in 2018?
https://ugandaradionetwork.net/story/two-weighlifters-vanish-in-australia?districtId=730
Oxycodin
I guess if I was from a poor country got into a country like Japan. Make sense go AWOL and hopefully you will stay in Japan if that has been a dream of yours.
didou
It was reported he bought a Shinkansen ticket at Nagoya station.
I bet he was so disappointed to miss the even he decided to go to Tokyo, visit the city and the weightlifting stadium at Tokyo Kokusai Forum, rather than going straight back to his country
Mr Kipling
snowymountainhell....
Yes it is the same guy. You would think that the Ugandan team would have kept better control of him this time.
They should send the whole team back to Uganda as a punishment.
AMS
This uganda group should select qualified players from home country compétition évents.....then take them to Tokyo.
oyattosa!!!
It's a good thing.. It gives Japan a taste of what they will deal with it they give in to Open Borders/One world Lunacy activists and open their borders.
This is not a racist remark... Don't even try...
Desperation tends to disregard rules and laws...That is all im saying...
John-San
Seeing that he is 20 years of age would he be considered a minor in Japan ??? If so, should his Guardian be arrested and charged.
A missing Ugandan athlete in western Japan has missed qualification for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
He miss qualifying for the Olympic ???? why is he in Japan for ??? plus a known to do a runner. really? If a bookmaker was to hold betting on the first person to do a runner this kid would be so far in the red (odds-on) you would make 5 yen on a 1000 yen laid.
Is this story a gee up or is it really fact ???
Tora
Only the western ones.
Martimurano
So long as he's wearing his team tracksuit, they should find him, so long as it's the track-and-trace type.....
noriahojanen
What's going on the "GPS solution" by which the conceit Olympic officials are ensuring "safe and secure"? May be a single unique case but copycats could follow suit.
He's left a note stating to the effect that he wouldn't like to go to a country (Uganda?) where life is harsh. Would seek employment in Japan.
不明ウガンダ選手「日本で仕事を」書き置き
https://www.47news.jp/news/6532273.html
Tokyoite
Yes, because up until now, that never happened.....
GBR48
This guy deserves a gold medal for optimism.
I wonder if his Plan B is to just quietly blend in amongst the locals?
SheZ
That was propably tourist annoyed of closed japanese borders, it gonna happen again if they will not start issuing tourist visas.
Danielsan
He must have local help or he wouldn't be able to stay hidden.
Unless he is already dead and his remains disposed.
starpunk
Flirting with disaster. This week is a countdown to disaster.
On another token, not to be off-target but Uganda's government has a bad reputation of persecuting gays. Homosexuality is 'illegal' in that country, is it possible that Julius Ssekitoleko is gay and he is trying to escape or defect? Just a hunch.
toolonggone
Why is this such a shock? Pretty much every major international sporting event sees at least 1 athlete, trainer, etc. trying to stay behind. Below is just a partial list and doesn't include those who defected between 1964 and 1996 or after and those are just for the Olympics. Of course there's the great ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who defected in 1961. There are at least 55 Cuban football (soccer) players have defected to the United States and so on. If Julius Ssekitoleko is the only one, that will be the real shock.
Fighto!
Nice romantic story, but he's already married. He will be caught within a few days and immediately deported. Banned from Japan for 10 years.
The whole episide just highlights the lack of security around the 90,000 or so incoming guests. There are NO effective bubbles.
Superspreader event commencing in 6 days now...
shogun36
How fun.
Illegals.
What you gonna do now Sugi?
Dirk T
Chances he will be deported? 100%