TOKYO — Earlier this month, up-and-coming American swimmer Michael Andrew revealed that he had chosen not to get a COVID-19 vaccination before traveling to Japan for the Summer Olympics.
The news drew a lengthy rebuke on social media from another prominent figure in the sport, retired two-time Olympic gold medalist Maya DiRado.
“That Michael would make a decision that puts even a bit of risk on his teammates for his own perceived well-being frustrates me,” she wrote.
In a sport that usually avoids making waves outside the pool, the blunt comments triggered equally testy pushback from some of Andrew’s teammates.
The Games are supposed to bring people together, but they haven’t been able to escape the contentious vaccine debate that’s raging thousands of miles away in the U.S.
While big-name competitors such as gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky have publicly acknowledged being vaccinated, Andrew is the highest-profile U.S. athlete to speak against it. The 22-year-old from Encinitas, Calif., said he had COVID-19 in December and recovered “very easily.”
“I didn’t want to put anything in my body I didn’t know how I would potentially react to,” Andrew said during a recent news conference. “As an athlete on the elite level, everything you do is very calculated. For me in the training cycle … I didn’t want to risk any days out.”
He went further in a recent interview with the Fox Business Network, saying he’s “representing my country in multiple ways and the freedoms we have to make a decision” and that not taking the vaccine is “something I’m willing to stand for.”
More than 85% of 709 athletes and alternates on the U.S. roster indicated they had been vaccinated, according to pre-Games medical questionnaires filed with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. (No information was collected on staffers.)
That number compares favorably to the 60% rate for adults in the U.S., but means more than 100 athletes are unvaccinated while eating, sleeping and training in close proximity with teammates.
In the year before the postponed Olympics, several members of the U.S. women’s rugby team missed playing time because they were ill with COVID-19. The squad “had a lot of discussions about whether we were going to get the vaccine or not,” said winger Naya Tapper.
There were also mixed emotions on the men’s squad where, like a lot of young, healthy athletes, Perry Baker said he “definitely had doubts about getting the shot. I felt like I could deal with (the coronavirus) if it came.”
The issue was complicated by the fact that many Americans had to qualify for the team at Olympic trials throughout the spring and did not want to miss any training because of adverse reactions. Tom Scott, on the national karate roster, did not make up his mind until taking a COVID-19 test before an international competition.
“You cannot compete unless you have a negative test,” Scott said. “So you’re kind of sitting there just hoping that after the travel and stuff that you’ve done OK.”
As chairwoman of the USOPC, Susanne Lyons has found herself balancing freedom of choice with “the weight of ensuring that we are, first of all, not endangering our host nation and certainly not endangering our athletes.”
New infections have surged in Japan, where only 30% of the population is vaccinated. Public opinion in Japan has trended against inviting 40,000 foreigners to a country that has otherwise closed its borders.
The issue has created a collision between personal choice and collective responsibility among athletes that mirrors discussions in the U.S.
“On one hand, the decisions one makes about one’s health are at the core of one’s autonomy,” said Shawn Klein, who teaches philosophy at Arizona State and specializes in sports ethics. “These decisions involve one’s deepest values and concerns. A free society must not interfere with such decisions lightly. On the other hand, the decision not to get the COVID-19 vaccine might impact others in potentially serious ways. The balancing of these is always controversial.”
The International Olympic Committee has estimated that 80% of residents in the athletes village will be vaccinated but is treating everyone at these Games — athletes, journalists, officials — as if they are not.
