Durban – If the Zika virus is as bad as some would-be Olympians fear it is, and if withdrawing from Rio 2016 is a consequence of that fear, then someone on high should be addressing the subject.
Maybe they have? The World Health Organisation (WHO) has proclaimed that Rio is “clear” of the threat of the mosquito-born virus, which is especially risky for females and pregnant women, although infected men can pass it on through intimacy.
However, the show will go on, says the International Olympic Committee, and the WHO has given the Games the green light.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games were held in Delhi, where Dengue fever – also contracted through a mosquito bite – still exists, but risk was declared low and the Games passed without incident.
However, world No11-ranked Branden Grace on Friday became the third top golfer to withdraw from Rio 2016 on the grounds of fears over the Zika virus. He joins Australians Adam Scott and Marc Leishmann, world No4 Rory McIlroy and Fiji’s Vijay Singh to pull out of the first Olympics since 1904 in which golf is featured as a sport, because of fears over Zika.
Other players, including South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, previously said they couldn’t be in Rio in August “due to scheduling and family reasons”.
In his statement on Friday, Grace said he was getting married in November and the couple were planning to start a family in the near future and, wanting to protect the health of his family, fears over the Zika virus did not allow that.
While the WHO have declared Rio “safe”, an alternate voice comes in the form of Canadian doctor and professor Amir Attaran in the May issue of the Harvard Public Health Review.
Extensive
“Simply put,” he wrote, “Zika infection is more dangerous, and Brazil’s outbreak more extensive, than scientists reckoned a short time ago. He said that Rio’s 26 000 suspected Zika cases were higher than anywhere else in Brazil, and its incidence rate was 157 per 100 000 people.
Attaran argued that “it helped nobody” to “speed up” the global outbreak “by bringing half-a-million travellers to the centre of the outbreak so they can carry the disease around the world”.
So, who’s telling the truth? Whatever the reality of the situation, the fact is that it is only in golf where there has been a spate of withdrawals over the Zika fear. You don’t see other codes, be it athletics, swimming, rugby sevens, tennis, rowing, or any of the more than 20 other sports, being affected by such a high withdrawal rate. Why is it that only the golfers are living in fear of contracting Zika?
There are many who believe that Zika is a smokescreen for a wider problem: professional golfers are lukewarm about going to Rio because there is no prize money at stake, and the 72-hole strokeplay format is just like any other tournament on the Tour.
Darren Clarke, the Ryder Cup captain, this past week defended the decision of McIlroy to withdraw – the Northern Irishman is also said to be keen on starting a family – but he also alluded to the golfers needing to rest.
“Guys might like to have a week off or whatever they need to do, but because the Olympics are there now, that opportunity is taken away from them. Personally, I’d like the guys as fresh as possible for the Ryder Cup.”
Oosthuizen and Schwartzel stuck their hands up and said the scheduling of the Olympics was the main reason they had decided against being in Rio, and Oosthuizen told the latest Compleat Golfer magazine on sale this week that “I represent South Africa every week on tour. The FedEx race also reaches it’s crucial stages after that, and I need to be fresh for that. I’m a proud South African, so any criticism that I’m not being patriotic is off the mark”.
The IOC, however, will be left red-faced by the high number of top golfers skipping Rio. Clearly, the format is wrong and it feels like any other week’s individual event. When tennis was introduced to the Olympics in 1992, many top players decided not to play. The men’s singles was won by Swiss Marc Rosset and South Africa’s Wayne Ferreira and Pietie Norval won silver in the men’s doubles.
Only after those Olympics did the tennis players “get it” and understand what an Olympics is all about; it’s unique and comes round once every four years.
South Africa’s greatest-ever golfer Gary Player says he would have given everything to play for his country in an Olympics.
Given that its three best current players, all ranked in the top 22 in the world, have decided to not compete, means that 59th-ranked Jaco van Zyl and 101st-ranked Brandon Stone are now likely to fly the flag for this country.
– Sunday Tribune