Michael Andrew, a U.S. swimming champion who has qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, announced on Thursday that he is not vaccinated yet. Andrew is a 2016 world champion in the 100-meter individual medley. And at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships, he won gold in the 50 m freestyle with a time of 21.46.
Michael is going to represent the United States in the 100-meter breaststroke, 200-meter individual medley, and 50-meter freestyle in the Tokyo Olympics later this month. Andrew said he didn’t want to take the vaccine to interfere with his training schedule.
According to the report from the USA today, Andrew mentioned that he didn’t want to put anything in his body that he didn’t know how it would potentially react and interfere with his training schedule.
Michael Andrew on why he is not vaccinated yet
“I am not fully vaccinated, I’m not vaccinated. 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.”
“As far as that goes, USA Swimming and all of us here have been through a very strict protocol with lots of testing, masks, socially distanced, I was staying away from the crowds and everything like that. With Tokyo, it’s the same thing with testing every day. So I 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. So we’ll see as things go forward.”
At the trials last month, Lindsay Mintenko, managing director of the U.S. national team said:
“They aren’t going to automatically disqualify you if you are contact traced at this point (if the athlete in question has been vaccinated.) That was good news for us. I have a lot of concerns going into the next few weeks. The health and safety of our athletes is always our No. 1 priority. It takes on a whole new meaning this year.”
“The virus is still here. It’s out there, and we’re going into an environment where we have no idea what the other population has been doing to protect themselves. That makes me nervous. We are going to do a lot to protect ourselves. But I’m nervous about what we’re going to walk into.”