By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Olympics is a sporting occasion that blends a range of different sports in one grand show piece. This sporting show piece started as far back as 776 BC. Since then it has gone through massive changes.
It comes around after every four years; the last one was held in 2012 in London. The 2012 London Olympic Games was the most viewed in television history, with over 4 billion people across the world watching it. In China alone 1.8 billion people watched the games and a record number of more than 200 million viewers in USA. Olympic is the premier sporting event in the world.
Four years on and the world is bracing up for a three week sporting festival yet again. This year’s Olympic will be held in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. The big challenge Brazil has now is to keep up with the success of the London Olympics, but this job has not got any easier with the emergence of the Zika virus in the South American country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has already declared the situation in Brazil and the Americas as a global health emergency. The virus is caused by the bite of Aedes mosquito and already the virus has spread across 35 countries and islands across the Americas.
Female athletes and their fears
Zika poses more risk to female athletes competing in the games. In countries where the virus has spread there have been very high cases of birth defects, which has been linked to a microcephaly, an abnormal smallness of the head which can result in a smaller brain.
As a result, the game faces a serious threat of prominent female athletes boycotting it. Hope Solo is just the first athlete to test the ground by saying she will not travel to Brazil if the games were held today. Solo is the goalkeeper of US national soccer team and she is regarded as one of the top female athletes to be traveling to Rio in August.
But she has disappointed the organizers with her latest comment regarding the games: “If Olympics were today, I will not go,” Solo said. Like many other potential participant in the game she wants a safe environment for all athletes to compete in. “No athlete competing in Rio should be faced with such dilemma,” Solo told Sl.com.
Sierra Leone female beach volleyball captain, Francess Lansana, is one of the many athletes hoping to qualify for the Rio Olympics. Currently the national team is in the Quarter final stage of their qualifiers.
She expressed her concern about the Zika virus and she believes it could distract athletes from performing at their very best. “The virus is a big distraction for us and it has the potential of disrupting our performance,” Lansana told Politico.
It is not a surprise that the major concerns about the Zika virus in Brazil is been made by women. Women are the worst affected parties in this latest global health scare.
Jessica Ennis- Hill is a gold medallist in the heptathlon in the London 2012 Olympics and this week she has hinted on wanting to have more children after the games. Her agent told Sporstmail that they are monitoring the development in Brazil closely and would decide if they want to travel to Rio and compete in August.
Olympic is the pinnacle of an athlete’s career and most of them try to start a family after the games. This happens in the four years before the next games. One will understand why female athletes are the most concerned, because travelling to Rio will mean them increasing their chances of getting the Zika virus in exchange for a place on the medals podium. Most female athletes will prefer not to go to Rio considering between the two options, having a healthy baby and them getting a medal.
Hope Solo, Jessica Ennis –Hills, these are some of the biggest female Olympic athletes considering a boycott of the games. If this happens then the Rio Olympics in August will be empty, lifeless and boring.
The chances of exporting Zika
Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia have gone through their own share of viral outbreak. In 2014 the deadly Ebola virus hit the Mano River Union countries and over 11,000 people died in all three countries. The Ebola virus left an already weakened health system in these three countries battered.
Nevertheless, all three countries are set to be represented at the Zika stricken Brazil Olympics games.
Like many other countries expecting to participate they are relying on the precautions the organizers are taking to make the game safe. Already organizers have advised those travelling to Rio for the games to use mosquito repellant throughout the day and night.
Authorities have said they will do daily sweeps in Olympic venues across Rio to prevent stagnating waters which are a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Last week they also announced that they will charge teams specially to fix mosquito guards in their rooms.
But all these efforts are not reassuring enough. Brazil’s commitment to fixing Rio properly ahead of the Olympic events has not been met so far, mostly because of the politics surrounding it. As of 2011 the city of Rio de Janiero is homed to 1000 favelas (slum areas), according to the Telegraph newspaper in the UK.
These communities are vulnerable to a virus like this because of their very poor sanitary conditions.
If all the measures that are being put in place fail, then there will be huge risk of fans and athletes travelling to the country to export home a huge viral load of Zika. The thought of this possibility is scary.
Rio’s failure so far
Every Olympic game in history has had their challenge in the build-up but in most cases the host nation has risen to the challenge. Brazil’s own problem is unique; it is a virus. There are a number of other problems that they face, especially sanitary.
Example; the Guanabara Bay has been marked as the venue for the sailing competitions during the Olympic. But the river is polluted with hundreds of tons of domestic wastes, from mattress to sewage. The organizers have long promised to clean it up before the games.
With just six months away from the game the organizers are saying the Bay is safe enough for the health of the athletes competing in it but tests by sailors and medical experts have shown that the situation is worse than they feared. Danish sailor Allan Norregaard told AP that he had not seen more polluted water than the Guanabara Bay. “I have sailed around the world for twenty years and this is the most polluted place I have ever been,” Norregard said.
This paints a picture of how bad the sanitary situation in Brazil is.
It is a shame that the build up to a global show piece like Olympics is marred by a virus. By now the real discussions should have been about how Mo Farrah can defend his 10, 000 meters title, another clash between Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt on the track, or talk about who will take Oscar Pistorious’ place on the Paralympics stage.
Zika might be the biggest winner if the Olympic is postponed or cancelled altogether. The cost of the Olympics event is going to be much more expensive with a global health emergency now in Brazil’s hand.
It would be better to call off the games rather than pursuing with bravery as if this is a rebel war. Focusing on eradicating the virus in the Americas is the right thing to do. Those who run, live to fight another day.
(C) Politico 10/03/16
