Will US athletes receive vaccines before Olympics?
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee is “more optimistic than ever” that its athletes will have access to COVID-19 vaccines before this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, USOPC chief executive officer Sarah Hirshland said Wednesday.
Hirshland said on a conference call that the organization hopes athletes will be vaccinated “readily and easily” and “well before” the Games, which are slated to begin July 23. Some athletes, she continued, might even receive their shots before competing in Olympic trials, many of which are scheduled for June.
“We’re happy that the vaccine situation here is looking very positive,” Hirshland said, “to help ensure that the broad base of athletes might have that access sooner than we initially thought possible.”
Hirshland also indicated that the USOPC could play a role in vaccine distribution, though the hope is that athletes will be able to receive shots in their
local communities as part of the general population.
President Joe Biden said this month that the U.S. should have enough vaccine doses to inoculate every adult by the end of May.
“We are also exploring opportunities to help support that distribution, to ensure that we know where athletes are, where they’ll be,” Hirshland said. “And there are trials, opportunities where we’ll have large groups of athletes gathering. Ideally, the vaccines are administered well in advance of that. But we are looking at every option because, as you know, the landscape continues to change on a regular basis.”
Vaccine availability has become a key issue ahead of the Tokyo Games, which were postponed by one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While vaccination will not be mandatory for athletes, the International Olympic Committee has instructed national Olympic committees, such as the USOPC, to ask their respective governments about when and how shots might be available for members of their Olympic teams. In several countries – including Belgium, Denmark and South Korea – government officials have indicated they will allow athletes to effectively cut the line and receive priority access to vaccines before competing in Tokyo. The USOPC has declined to push for such a move.
Hirshland believes “the vast majority” of Team USA athletes will choose to take the vaccine while acknowledging that some will not. “And we will respect that right,” she said.
She said the USOPC’S medical team, led by Jonathan Finnoff, is working with its counterparts in individual sports to provide information about vaccines to athletes.
The committee is also mindful that some athletes might seek to get vaccinated at different times depending on their training and competition schedules, Hirshland added.
In other respects, USOPC leaders said they have no choice but to wait for more guidance and decisions from the IOC and local organizers about what the Games will look like.
Multiple news outlets in Japan have reported that international spectators won’t be allowed to attend, though Olympic organizers have yet to announce such a decision. And questions about fan capacity at venues, or whether athletes’ family members and friends will be able to attend the Games, remain unanswered.