In a bid to create a safe environment and restore some level of
consistency in planning, the USOPC announced last month that
Team USA athletes hoping to compete in the Beijing Olympics will
be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
"The response is as you would expect: Within our general
population, there are some people who are extremely happy that
we introduced this policy," Jonathan Finnoff, the USOPC's chief
medical officer, said during the virtual Team USA media summit.
"And there are others that are upset and would like to not have
any mandate regarding vaccinations."
According to Finnoff, it is only a "very small minority" of Team
USA athletes who oppose the mandate and the USOPC is having
one-on-one conversations with each one to discuss their feelings
and explain why the decision was made.
Last month's announcement by the USOPC came days before the
International Olympic Committee said the Beijing Olympics would
have tight COVID-19 measures in place to ensure the safety of
all participants during the Feb. 4-20 event.
Finnoff said the "more stringent" Beijing measures, which he
added unlike the USOPC's rules will not grant religious
exemption, would supersede the U.S. policy.
Any athlete who is granted a medical exemption will have to go
through a 21-day quarantine in Beijing before they can begin
training ahead of their event.
"These are challenging times but the vaccine policy that we've
put in place and that China has put in place is going to make
the Games as safe as possible," said Finnoff.
USOPC Chief Executive Sarah Hirshland said the COVID-19 mandate
is all about the safety and health of the team.
"The presence of this virus makes the challenge greater for all
of us in a Games environment but we are committed to doing
everything we can to mitigate illness and to mitigate the spread
of COVID-19," said Hirshland.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.![](column_spacer.png) |
|