The US, of course, took home the most medals at the London Games in 2012 and is responsible for a good deal of the advertising cash and media exposure that the Olympics garner.
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The virus has been linked to microcephaly, a condition that leads to babies being born with small heads and birth defects.
“The reports that the USOC has advised United States athletes to reconsider competing in Rio due to the Zika virus are 100 percent inaccurate”, USOC spokesperson Patrick Sandusky said in a statement.
As far as the women’s national team goes, and amid a dispute with US Soccer, they still have to qualify for the Olympics.
Let’s say you’re a female athlete who, though years of hard work and dedication, has ascended to the top of her sport. Symptoms of infection often are mild or imperceptible.
In El Salvador, which is experiencing outbreaks of the virus, women are being advised to put off pregnancy until 2018. “If an athlete feels that way, of course they may decide not to go”.
“No athlete competing in Rio should be faced with this dilemma”, she told Grant Wahl. The games will also be held in Brazil’s winter, when colder temperatures should reduce the mosquito population.
“First, we get regular updates from Rio organizers and the International Olympic Committee on the situation in Brazil”, Soi said.
Kenya could be forced to pull out of the upcoming Games if the public health situation gets worse, the head of Kenya’s Olympic committee said Tuesday. They passed along mosquito avoidance advice, but remained confident the games would go ahead as planned.
Reuters reported that athletes from New Zealand and Australia have already been warned of the possible dangers Zika could inflict on pregnant women.
A Rio 2016 Olympics sign is displayed in front of dancers during the parades at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on February 7, 2016.
Pouilly said it has become so urgent to change the law because such countries can not ask the affected women not to become pregnant.
The Rio Olympics begin August 5 – less than six months from now.
“It’s not uncommon for Olympics to suffer from the need for last-minute preparations, and in this sense Rio is on par with previous Olympic Games”, Boykoff said.
But the spread of Zika virus is forcing female athletes to consider what heading to Brazil could do to their future.
What is the Zika virus?
He added that he had contacted Olympic authorities to raise his concerns and said that if assurances were forthcoming, there would be no problem with Kenyan athletes attending.
Australian tennis player and former U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur said fears over the virus would play no part in her planning.
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JAPAN Japan’s Olympics Committee Chairman Tsunekazu Takeda said no athletes were thinking of “boycotting the Olympics”. “But it has not become a mission critical issue yet”.
