British swimming superstar Duncan Scott has contracted COVID-19, he posted on his Instagram page on Wednesday morning.
Now more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic’s grip on the world, anecdotal evidence suggests that many, if not most, elite swimmers have had a COVID-19 infection at least once, and the current predominant Omicron strain generally causes less severe symptoms than its predecessors, especially for vaccinated individuals.
But the timing of the infection just 17 days before the start of the 2022 World Championships is less-than-ideal for Scott, who is a contender for a number of medals in Budapest.
Current guidelines in the UK advises those infected with COVID-19 to “try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days” and to avoid meeting people at higher risk from COVID-19 for 10 days. The current guidelines in the UK are not requirements, though, and
“3 weeks out from worlds isn’t ideal but we’ll make it work,” Scott said of his infection.
Scott is one of 23 pool swimmers who were chosen to represent Great Britain at the World Championships.
At last summer’s Olympic Games, Scott became the first British Olympian to win four medals in a single games, taking gold as part of the British 800 free relay, and silvers in the 200 free, 200 IM, and 400 medley relay. At Britain’s selection trials in April, he also broke the British Record in the 400 IM with a 4:09.18. That time would have won gold at last summer’s Olympic Games.
The UK has not seen the early-summer rise in COVID-19 infections that much of the world, including the United States, has faced, though the increasing availability of at-home testing kits skews data. The country is currently reporting about 8 new infections per 100,000 population, which is about 2% of the peak infections rate around the new year. The country also reports about 67 daily deaths from COVID-19 infection over the last week.
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Deano had it twice in the run up to Tokyo. British lads are made of strong stuff.
There was still more than five months towards the Olympics when Dean got it. Three weeks are a much shorter period of time.
For one split second, I wondered what COVID 17 is haha
And he will still be faster than Matt Richard’s with Covid lol
An he will still Winn the 200 free, cheers coc
While the current strain in milder in the sense that old people are less likely to end up in the hospital, it can still mess up an athlete for a month or more. Cycling legend Peter Sagan is effectively missing half of 2022 due to lingering long Covid issues from what’s probably an omicron case.
Messi recently talked about being unable to run initially after getting it, but others seem to have no issue. Don’t think we’ll know until his first race or if he pulls out of events.
I knew something was up when he scratched all 3 days of the Glasgow Swim Meet last week.
Well if he scratched last week, hopefully that means he’s already been infected for a week and should be fully recovered very soon
Spread the wealth!