CLAIM: There are over 20 athletes that have competed bele (with) Covid including some Australian swimmers
SOURCE: Social media account
VERDICT: True
It has been an interesting week at the Paris Olympics. From Noah Lyles’ photo finish in the 100m final that left a sour taste for some to the historical win by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo in the 200m final.
No sooner was that race over when Lyles could be seen on the track floor seemingly gasping for breath. News soon followed that Lyles had earlier in the week, tested positive for COVID-19.
And, of course, the questions and speculations started.
One account on Facebook questioned, ‘So this American was cleared to compete even when being Covid-19 positive? Would it have been the same had it been any other athlete?’
Another on X wrote, ‘You exposed everyone you came in contact with. I have asthma. I’ll die if I get COVID. I’ve done everything possible to avoid it. You were very selfish. This disease does long term damage. I was impressed with your performance until I learned you had no regard for other people’s lives. Unreal.’
‘Why race when you know you’ve got Covid? You and your technical team should be arrested/banned’, said another.
In response to these questions, some argued that Lyles was not the first athlete in Paris to compete while positive for COVID-19.
‘Why aren’t you calling for the covid-positive Australian olympians to be arrested? would you not take the chance to potentially get olympic gold if all you had to do was mask properly, as he did? and it’s not his fault that the IOC let him race’, someone responded.
Another in the comment to this post, claimed that, ‘There are over 20 athletes that have competed bele (with) Covid including some Australian swimmers’.
So, is he (Lyles) or isn’t he the first/only athlete to be allowed to compete at the Paris Olympic Games after testing positive for COVID-19?
On 3 August, 2024, the BBC carried an article headlined ‘Peaty returns after “physically worst week of life”’.
The article reported that ‘Peaty tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, a day after winning 100m breaststroke silver, and did not take part in the mixed 4x100m medley relay heats on Friday.
He returned on Saturday alongside Oliver Morgan, Joe Litchfield and Matt Richards, clocking three minutes 32.13 seconds to qualify fifth-fastest in Paris’.
On 7 August, Scientific American reported that ‘Several athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have come down with COVID, but they are still allowed to compete’.
And this was before Lyles’ positive result was made public.
In the article, the newspaper makes the claim that over 20 athletes at the games had tested positive for COVID-19. These include Peaty (as already mentioned), and Australian swimmers Lani Pallister and Zac Stubblety-Cook.
On 6 August, in a United Nations press briefing, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, Director of Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness & Prevention at the World Health Organization (WHO), stressed that COVID-19 ‘was still very much with us and was circulating in all countries’.
The statement goes further to state that, ‘In recent months, regardless of the season, many countries had experienced surges, including at the Olympics, where at least 40 athletes had been tested positive’.
Olympic COVID Protocols
The last Games saw very strict protocols in Tokyo 2020 including regular testing, social distancing and near-constant mask wearing.
The Scientific American reports that ‘Athletes no longer undergo daily testing or frequent temperature checks. Players who feel ill are encouraged—though not required—to wear masks, wash their hands and avoid close contact with others. The Olympic Village has single rooms available for athletes who test positive for COVID, and certain countries, such as the U.S., provide separate transportation for sick participants. Infected athletes may still train and compete in events—and so far many have’.
According to Today.com, ‘While more than 40 COVID-19 cases among this year’s Olympic athletes may seem like a lot, NBC News medical contributor Dr. Kavita Patel told Today.com last month that based on existing guidelines, 5 percent of athletes (there are about 10,500 athletes participating in the Paris Games) would need to contract COVID-19 within a seven-day period to be considered an outbreak’.
Conclusion
The claim that ‘there are over 20 athletes that have competed bele (with) Covid including some Australian swimmers’ has been rated as true. UN reports put the number at over 40 to date. Apart from Lyles, the list includes elite swimmers from Great Britain and Australia, with some, incidentally, going on to win medals after testing positive.
