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michael andrew's vaccine refusal a controversy for u.s. swim team
for michael andrew, the latest among brash and talented american medal favourites in the water, the concept of staying in your lane is hitting a little too close for many in japan
jul 23 2021
3 minute read
on thursday, team usa coach dave durden was pressed repeatedly by reporters on andrew's stance, and by extension, his living arrangements among his teammates.
hugh lawson
/
usa today/reuters
by: rob longley
for michael andrew, the latest among brash and talented american medal favourites in the water, the concept of staying in your lane is hitting a little too close for many in japan.
it is a short journey from covid-19 hotspot to the tokyo aquatics centre where the olympic swim meet will break water on saturday, after all, and andrew is defiantly bridging the two.
the 22-year-old, who will compete in three events as he makes his olympic debut, has churned up controversy in the sport since his early teens, but nothing like this.
he is both a covid-19 survivor but also one of the minority of athletes preparing for these beleaguered games that has refused to become vaccinated. andrew, who is scheduled to compete in the 100-metre breaststroke, the 200-metre individual medley and the 50-metre freestyle, has his reasons. but for many, they aren’t sitting well.
“my reason behind it is, for one, it was kind of last moment (and) i didn’t want to put anything in my body that i didn’t know how i would potentially react to,” andrew said during a pre-olympics video press conference. “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 (the u.s. olympic trials) i didn’t want to risk any days out. there were periods where you take a vaccine (and) you have to deal with some days off.”
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that’s the official, tempered explanation andrew is sticking with for now and if taken at its word softens the anti-vaxxer accusations that have trailed him.
on too many levels, however, the andrew stance is difficult to digest, and when combined with an unconventional back story, has become a spreading distraction among the u.s. team in tokyo. on thursday, team usa coach dave durden was pressed repeatedly by reporters on andrew’s stance, and by extension, his living arrangements among his teammates.
durden said the u.s. team is adhering to the extensive covid protocols in place and at least sounded confident that andrew wouldn’t post a health threat.
“it is a team thing that we’re really supporting each other and michael is no different in that regard,” durden told reporters.
that said, at best andrew is becoming a growing distraction and at worst a potential risk to his teammates and competitors. whether it be with athletes or support staff or officials, the virus positives are starting to pile up in tokyo, making the unvaccinated among them a threat.
durden claimed not to know andrew’s precise living arrangements in the athletes’ village but his mere presence with the team could create huge competitive issues for the americans. though the international olympic committee hasn’t mandated vaccines — it estimated recently that 80 per cent of competitors will be fully vaxxed — there are strict lockdown rules in place, including close contact tracing, should there be an outbreak or positive.
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meanwhile, the risks in the village, on busses and at the venue isn’t even factoring in the threat to those who swim in lanes on either side of andrew during competition.
the swimmer’s most recent public comments are starkly benign in comparison to remarks in an interview with fox business news, where andrew, who said he had covid-19 in december, offered a much bolder explanation for passing on a vaccine.
“going to the games not only unvaccinated but as an american, i’m representing my country in multiple ways and the freedoms we have to make a decision like that,” andrew said.
predictably, that did little to calm the waters as it went well beyond the jab-interrupting-the-training-regimen justification has been met with considerable criticism.
most pointed among them came from former u.s. swimmer maya dirado. the four-time medallist at the 2016 rio games took to twitter to lambaste andrew.
“that michael would make a decision that puts even a bit of risk on his teammates for his own perceived well-being frustrates me,” dirado wrote. “i wish he’d think harder about what he’s proud to represent.”
as controversial as his stance has become, this is not the first time andrew has churned the waters of u.s. swimming. from turning pro at age 14, to being home coached by his father in a two-lane backyard pool in kansas, to revolutionary training methods, the first-time olympian has long been viewed as an outlier.
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but in a games where covid-19 has a share of almost every headline thus far, michael has gone from quirky to controversial. and all this before saturday when he’s scheduled to leap from the blocks for his race in an olympics where he hopes to be a bigger story in the pool than outside of it.
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