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Head of Canadian Olympic Committee Floats Idea of Athletes Jumping Vaccine Line

The Canadian Olympic Committee has spoken to the Canadian government about vaccinating athletes prior to leaving for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

David Shoemaker, in an interview with the CBC, COC head David Shoemaker said he told the government that it is the International Olympic Committee’s “desire” to have the team vaccinated before the Tokyo Olympics, which is scheduled to begin on July 23.

“We’ve spoken to the government and relayed the IOC’s desire for us to have our team vaccinated prior to going to Tokyo. They’ve recognized that we’ve got a need,” Shoemaker said.

“Certainly when athletes and all Canadians want to travel internationally under these circumstances, a vaccine would be preferable.”

See the full interview here:

Shoemaker couched his comments via Twitter last week, saying that “as for vaccines, frontline workers and vulnerable individuals must continue to have prioritized access to Canada’s supply. We continue to plan on the assumption that vaccines may not be widely available to our athletes prior to the Games.”

Canada sent 314 athletes in 27 sports to the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, where they came away with 22 medals (4 gold, 3 silver, 15 bronze). With support personnel, this only makes up a tiny fraction of the Canadian population that has to be immunized to achieve herd immunity.

But a battle of optics has raged around the world since IOC member Dick Pound, poetically a Canadian, said publicly that he believes that athletes should be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccines.

While the broader impact of a few hundred athletes in a country as big as Canada getting the vaccine won’t dramatically impact the timeline of the virus’ spread, it does provide for challenging optics when, in general, athletes are at a low risk for serious complications for the disease.

The conversation comes in a week where the CDC also reports that the country is having supply issues, with both Pfizer and Moderna under-delivering on early vaccine promises to the country. While Canada is experiencing much-lower rates of coronavirus infections than many other top Olympic nations, their vaccine program is also progressing more slowly. Over the last 7 days, Canada has averaged 15 new infections daily per 100,000 population, as compared to the US, which is averaging triple that rate in the same time period.

According to data collected by Bloomberg, Canada has administered about 2.53 vaccine doses for every 100 residents. That’s far lower than the US (9.30) and UK (12.36), though better than countries like France (2.25), Hungary (2.18), or the Netherlands (1.31).

Other major sporting bodies, like the NBA, have reiterated that they won’t try to find ways for their athletes to jump the line for coronavirus vaccines.

With about 6 weeks required between the first dose and the promised 95% effectiveness, plus needing a second dose, it would be hard math for the Canadian swimmers, specifically, who qualify at the country’s planned trials in late May, to get the full round of vaccine in before departure – unless the COC were to try to push their most probable qualifiers to the front of the line (resulting in a larger number of priority patients).

So far, Swimming Canada has pre-emptively nominated 6 swimmers for the Olympic Games. Individual 2019 World Championship medalists Kylie MasseMaggie MacNeil and Sydney Pickrem have been nominated by Swimming Canada to the Canadian Olympic team, as have Penny OleksiakTaylor Ruck and Markus Thormeyer, all of whom made an individual final in Gwangju.

Tokyo 2020 organizers are expecting about 11,000 athletes for the Games this summer.

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SwimMom
3 years ago

I’d be interested to know what provinces are even allowing swimming at this time? Ontario is allowing only High Performance athletes in the water, and I believe BC as well. Who else?

Cindy Rowe
3 years ago

Considering many federal and provincial jails are ensuring inmates are vaccinated before the general population, I find and ppl say anger to this recommendation interesting

The Canadian National athletes are TRAVELLING, and have international TRAINING locations in some instances (Canada, UK, USA -NCAA). I think it’s very PRUDENT to vaccinate this group. And it’s literally a few hundred ppl.

And for the nay-sayers on vaccinating ‘slow’ athletes – we have some of the top athletes in the world who will make A Finals (swimming).

Edmond Tremblay
3 years ago

One life is not worth the price of admission…

Edmond Tremblay
3 years ago

One life is not worth the price of admission….

Bo Swims
3 years ago

This will go over like a brick through a window at this point in time.

Go Canada!
3 years ago

Good Idea considering the sacrifices they do in trainings to give honour to the country. And the prospect of going out of the country and coming back, in essence protecting us too. After front line workers and seniors, national athletes should be next.

Bevo
3 years ago

Wouldn’t the fact that airlines are going to require a vaccine verification before boarding assist in this?

The Importer AND Exporter
3 years ago

Fine, but make sure that the athletes recognize the people they bumped when they give their post-event interviews. Eg. “I know I’m only here because someone’s family member’s risk of contracting COVID has been extended, and I’m really sorry that their sacrifice only resulted in me coming in 32nd.”

Togger
Reply to  The Importer AND Exporter
3 years ago

Maybe people could offer to swap places with an Olympian of their choice?

Just an 85 year old guy watching Dressel like “He’s got my vaccine in him, I’m basically going a 46 myself”

Swimmer1
Reply to  Togger
3 years ago

Yeah I mean I’m sure there are enough people who would say I’ll stay at home for an extra month to watch olympics… also more vaccines are going to be approved so I can see the athletes being vaccinated before the games. Hopefully the rich countries can make sure the other countries have some

HJones
Reply to  The Importer AND Exporter
3 years ago

Or, just don’t invite the athletes who would finish in 32nd. Cap it at the top 24 in each event. When was the last time someone outside the top 24 seeds at the Olympics medaled??

Njones
Reply to  HJones
3 years ago

Surprisingly more than we’d all think. As we’re on a swimming forum/comment section, 95% or more of the Canadian qualifiers will be top 24 as they have to achieve FINA A time for 2 qualifiers. This will likely be all the women and maybe half the men, hopefully more.

The Importer AND Exporter
Reply to  Njones
3 years ago

Top 24 is still failure. If you’re going to put your own interests ahead of the health of others, you better win gold.

Cindy Rowe
Reply to  Njones
3 years ago

Umm … did you forget the medal haul for Canada in Brazil … including up coming Penny Olesiak. … sit down.

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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