U.S. swimming superstar Michael Andrew publicly explained his reasoning for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Andrew will compete in multiple events for the United States at the Olympics in Tokyo later this month.
Andrew is “the biggest Olympic name yet to reveal that he has not been vaccinated, saying he didn’t want to take the vaccine to interfere with his training schedule” reports USA TODAY.
During a USA Swimming media Zoom call Thursday night, Andrew responded to a question from USA TODAY Sports on his vaccination status. “I am not fully vaccinated, I’m not vaccinated,” said Andrew. “My reason behind it is, for one, it was kind of the last moment, I didn’t want to put anything in my body that I didn’t know how I would potentially react to.”
“As an athlete on the elite level, everything you do is very calculated and understood. For me, in the training cycle, especially leading up to trials, I didn’t want to risk any days out. There were periods where you take a vaccine you have to deal with some days off” he continued.
Andrew also praised the precautions being taken. “USA Swimming and all of us here have been through very strict protocol with lots of testing, masks, socially distant, staying away from the crowds, everything like that,” he said.
“Going into Tokyo, the same thing with testing every day, so we feel very safe and protected knowing that we’re minimizing risk as much as possible, but personally I have not had the vaccine yet and don’t plan on it in the future.” He concluded, “we’ll see as things go forward.”
USA TODAY reports “at last month’s U.S. Olympic trials, USA Swimming President and CEO Tim Hinchey estimated ‘around 90 percent’ of the U.S. national team had been vaccinated.” Vaccines are not mandatory at the Olympic Games.
