Kearney: Athletes should not jump vaccine queue just to save Games

She became the first British athlete known to have been vaccinated against coronavirus this week, but para-swimming champion Tully Kearney yesterday insisted others competing at the Olympics and Par- alympics should not be allowed to jump the queue for a jab, even if it stopped the Games being cancelled.

Kearney, who has cerebral palsy, received her first dose of the Pfizerbiontech vaccine on Wednesday after being included in the clinically extremely vulnerable group prioritised for inoculation.

There have been calls for all Olympic and Paralympic athletes to be given priority amid fears Tokyo 2020 could be scrapped unless the majority of those competing are also vaccinated. But despite the prospect of that opening the door for her to go to her first Games, Kearney told The Daily Telegraph: “No, I don’t think that should be allowed at all. The global pandemic is bigger than sport and sporting events.

“The health of the country – the health of the world – is more important than making sure a small population of the world can go together and compete. They’ve not completely finished vaccinating the clinically extremely vulnerable groups. So it’s obviously more important for those groups to get vaccinated.”

Kearney said she had not even thought about the impact of vaccination on her participation at Tokyo 2020 when she was called for a jab. “Me being the clinically extremely vulnerable group, it was more important for me to have it as soon as I was called forward for my health rather than thinking about competing,” she said. “I’m really grateful to the scientists and the NHS.”

The 23-year-old, who won triple gold at the World Championships after missing Rio 2016 through injury, was hopeful all athletes would be vaccinated before Tokyo 2020 without jumping the queue and said the Games could still take place in a “closed bubble” even if they were not.