Olympic bigwigs, foreign embassies and sporting bodies are set to form part of a piecemeal solution to get as many Australian athletes vaccinated against COVID-19 before the Tokyo Games.
Last month, the federal government agreed to provide Australian competitors and officials access to coronavirus vaccines prior to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Those jabs will cover the majority of approximately 450-480 Australians set to compete at Tokyo 2021.
But the nature of globalised sport and lead-up events means some Australian athletes will need to source doses elsewhere.
Vaccination won't be required to compete but the International Olympic Committee (IOC), having recently struck a deal with Pfizer, forecasts more than 90 per cent of athletes will have had the jab.
The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), which continues to maintain faith the Games will go ahead despite surging COVID-19 cases in Japan, is striving to ensure everybody under its umbrella can access the vaccine.
"We're working with other National Olympic Committees, who might be able to help us," Australia's Chef de Mission Ian Chesterman told AAP.
"We're also working with the Australian government to see how they can support us through some of their embassies.
"We're encouraging the IOC to also make it available somewhere in Europe, it'd be handy if athletes can call through somewhere there.
"If we can do some through sports (federations), that's also an advantage ... it's a bit of a mixed approach.
"There's lots of challenges ahead of these Games and the next big one is getting that overseas cohort covered, there'll be about 250 people coming into the team from overseas rather than Australia."
Olympians based in Australia have already started receiving doses.
"The Games were always organised without a vaccine but without a question it makes everyone's life easier," Chesterman said.
The AOC is still in talks with state governments regarding hotel quarantine spots for Olympians, with charter and commercial flights set to shuttle Australians home from Japan throughout the Games.
The majority of Olympians will likely return outside the cap on return travellers, as was the case with the recently-returned Indian Premier League cricketers.
"Commercial flights will land in Sydney, so that will be a hub for a lot of athletes," Chesterman said.
"We'll have over 1,000 people in quarantine probably, at the peak, so that's a pretty big number and it'll be outside the cap.
"We recognise that's important, we're bringing a lot of people back around the same time.
"There might be some within the cap but the majority will be outside."
