In scorching water. Crew USA’s Michael Andrew confronted main backlash after the unvaccinated athlete spoke with reporters on the Tokyo Olympics with no face protecting.
“Michael Andrew, the highest-profile unvaccinated American Olympian, refused to put on a masks within the blended zone,” USA Immediately Sports activities columnist Christine Brennan wrote by way of Twitter on Friday, July 30, alongside photographs of the swimmer, 22, maskless in a press space. “Each different U.S. swimmer I’ve seen all week has worn one.”
Brennan reported that the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee determined to not penalize Andrew for his determination to go maskless after initially releasing a press release saying he was in “violation of the COVID mitigation protocols.”
Michael Andrew. Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS
In accordance with the USOPC’s Tokyo COVID-19 protocols playbook, launched final month, American athletes are allowed to take away their masks when talking with press. The committee later launched a press release saying Andrew “has been reminded of the Video games coverage and established COVID mitigation protocols.”
Nonetheless, the Minnesota native shortly grew to become essentially the most seen unvaccinated U.S. Olympian, inflicting a stir with some followers amid the unfold of COVID-19, and the Delta variant all through the world.
“Smug. I hoped his swim final evening supplied him a dish of humility, however now I’m wondering,” one Twitter consumer replied to Brennan’s photographs of Andrew within the press room, referencing his fifth-place end within the males’s 200-meter particular person medley on Friday morning.
A second consumer commented, “That is disgraceful! Vaccinations ought to have been required for all Olympians out of respect for the folks of Japan, who haven’t been as lucky with their vaccine rollout.”
A 3rd Twitter consumer famous, “No masks, no medal, Michael,” whereas a fourth individual tried to lighten the temper, writing, “Refuses to put on a shirt, too.”
Andrew addressed his option to go maskless within the blended zone on Friday, telling USA Immediately Sports activities, “For me, it’s fairly laborious to breathe in after form of sacrificing my physique within the water, so I really feel like my well being is a bit more tied to having the ability to breathe than defending what’s popping out of my mouth.”
He continued: “I believe it’s nice that there’s procedures, however on the finish of the day, all of us right here have been underneath quarantine and in the identical testing protocol, so there’s a degree of security (that’s) comfy after we’re racing.”
The outlet reported that Andrew is at the moment the one swimmer they’ve seen refusing to placed on a masks to do interviews. Excessive-profile athletes, together with Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel, have continued to put on their face coverings after every race.
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