All over the world, countries are racing to immunize their populations as quickly as possible to Covid-19.
Some of them have made a controversial choice.
Six months before the Tokyo Olympics, they decided to prioritize a category of people who are young and in perfect health: the athletes.
Hungary thus began, Friday, January 29, to inject the vaccine to athletes with the potential to participate in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, postponed for a year due to the pandemic, or in the winter of Beijing, which will take place six months later.
The Hungarian Olympic Committee has announced that 868 athletes have been selected to receive the Moderna vaccine with the aim of facilitating their preparation for these competitions and of immunizing them before qualifying events or training camps abroad.
"As an organization with Olympic ambitions, we wanted to simplify the preparation for qualifying for the Olympic Games so that the athletes present themselves in the best physical condition possible, the virus potentially leaving sequelae over several months", explained the Hungarian Olympic Committee in a statement.
6 Months To Go!
# Tokyo2020 #Olympics # 6MonthsToGo pic.twitter.com/TmD4UY4xzh
- # Tokyo2020 (@ Tokyo2020) January 23, 2021
A sporting advantage?
But while some countries are struggling to obtain vaccines, this preferential treatment may appear to be a sporting advantage.
Serbia, Russia and Israel have also decided to vaccinate their representatives at the Games.
Conversely, Italian athletes are warned.
They will not benefit from any privileges in the vaccination process, according to statements by the president of the National Olympic Committee Giovanni Malago in an interview with
La
Repubblica
.
"We know there are many countries where national athletes are about to be vaccinated"
,
has he said.
"We will never ask for that. We don't want it either. An elderly person must be vaccinated before an athlete in his twenties. But a high level athlete has to travel a lot, for gatherings, competitions… He goes through airports, locker rooms, competition venues, to defend the Italian flag. It is up to the political world to decide, not to the sports movement
.
"
The Greek Olympic Committee also wants to vaccinate its athletes, but after the elderly and nursing staff.
A spokesperson told Reuters that the committee "will continue to pressure the government to ensure that all athletes benefit from the vaccine."
In some countries, the wait to be vaccinated is shorter, which gives athletes a definite advantage, while in others no dose has yet been administered.
Denmark, for example, whose entire population should be vaccinated by July 1, has already inoculated 150 athletes and 200 members of its delegation.
At the same time, in Israel, the most advanced country in terms of vaccination against Covid-19, says it has vaccinated half of its delegation scheduled for Tokyo.
The whole team should be by the end of May, two months before the Olympics.
The IOC President reaffirms his commitment to the Olympic Games @ Tokyo2020fr.
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- Olympic Games (@jeuxolympiques) January 27, 2021
A reluctant CIO
For its part, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has clarified its position on this thorny subject.
The body is not "in favor of athletes cutting the queue", said Thomas Bach, the President of the IOC, for whom the priority must remain "for vulnerable people, caregivers and people who run our society".
The IOC nonetheless "encourages" athletes to be vaccinated, once the doses are available to a large public, and has asked the 206 national Olympic committees to contact their governments.
As the athletes fight not to think too much about the uncertainty surrounding the competition, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reaffirmed his intention to hold them this summer at the end of January.
"I am determined" to host a "safe" Olympic Games in Tokyo, as a sign of "humanity's victory over Covid-19," he said in a parliamentary session.
But his compatriots are not of the same opinion.
The current upsurge in the pandemic is also affecting Japan, where public opinion is now overwhelmingly opposed to the organization of the Games, preferring a further postponement or outright cancellation, according to recent polls.
Elected representatives of the opposition in Japan have also asked for the postponement or cancellation of the Olympics.
The Tokyo Medical Association has suggested that the event take place without spectators.
The organizers, favorable to a presence of the public, even limited, intend to decide in the coming months on the question.
In France, the president of the national Olympic committee, Denis Masseglia, also felt that the athletes should wait their turn.
"No question of athletes having priority over other categories of the population, but between now and the Games, we can think that there will be the possibility of having them vaccinated without it penalizing other people", he hoped, however.
This dilemma does not only question the authorities, but also those primarily concerned, the athletes.
"Me, that poses an ethical problem for me, I do not have the feeling as an athlete of being a vulnerable person, and suddenly, not at all the impression that one must be a priority, because it is Well that's the question asked, "said Astrid Guyart to AFP, fencer and member of the high-level athletes' commission of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).
"I am divided," also recognizes Mélina Robert-Michon, Olympic vice-champion in Rio in the discus throw.
"This is an opportunity to show that there is really the intention to organize the Games and what it is possible to put in place to make it happen. But will there be enough? How to prioritize athletes over more vulnerable people? "
Faced with this reluctance, Denis Masseglia reminded that "for those who do not wish to be vaccinated, it should be known that the participation precautions will be extremely difficult", evoking for the unvaccinated a "complicated path".
In other words, the latter could undergo, once on Japanese soil, "a form of quarantine, a fortnight […] where it will be necessary to carry out a battery of tests", warned Denis Masseglia.
"We want to protect them"
With an average age of 27 and excellent physical condition by definition, Olympians are normally considered to be at low risk for Covid-19 and should only receive a vaccine among the last.
However, the Belgian Olympic committee has also requested 400 to 500 vaccinations for its athletes and its delegation.
Doctor Johan Bellemans, chief medical officer of the Belgian Olympic Committee, himself a former Olympian, concedes that he does not want "our athletes to have a competitive disadvantage".
But according to him, the medical argument is the most important.
"Many athletes were infected during the second wave. Our rate of contamination is now 22%, which is much higher than in the normal population," he described in an interview with
Sporza spots
.
"In addition, according to a study, an abnormality of the heart muscle can be observed in 60% of the young and active population, three or six months after the infection", he also explained.
"Some athletes have had heart complications. When you train hard with this kind of inflammation, it can get very dangerous. We want to protect them."
From July 23 to August 8, 2021, more than 11,000 athletes are expected in Tokyo to participate in the Olympic Games.
>> Translated from English by Stéphanie Trouillard. To read the France24.com article in its original version, click here
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