Covid threatens to spoil Australia’s water polo medal hopes
Australia’s women’s water polo team is at risk of seeing their medal hopes sink before the first whistle blows at the 2024 Paris Olympics, with a Covid-19 outbreak impacting the team this week in Paris.
Five of the squad tested positive for the highly contagious respiratory illness earlier in the week. While they were allowed to continue training, it’s not known how serious the impact has been on each player.
The Australian women’s water polo team is due to play their first match of the Paris Olympics against China on Sunday. They are heavy favourites to prevail, but may have to do so without some of their first-choice players.
Should the outbreak continue to affect team into next week, then Australia’s medal chances will take a significant hit.
Already, they sit in the fifth line of betting at $16 to win gold; disrupted practices and unavailable players will only serve to lengthen these odds with leading sports bookmakers.
Officials play down Covid-19 concerns at Olympics
Both the Australian chef de mission and an Olympic Games spokesperson have played down concerns about Covid-19 spreading in the Olympics village over the coming weeks.
“We regularly remind athletes and all other Games stakeholders of the good practices to adopt should they experience any respiratory symptoms,” said a statement from the Paris Olympics.
“Hand sanitiser stations can be found at all the residential areas and also the restaurant of the Olympic Village.
“We continue to carefully monitor the public health situation in France, in conjunction with the relevant government ministry.”
Australia’s Anna Meares echoes this same sentiment in a statement about the Australian women’s water polo team on Wednesday.
“The affected players have been wearing their masks, they are isolating from other team members when they are not training,” Meares said.
“They are not going into the high-volume areas of the allotment like the gym and the performance pantry and more broadly, we have our respiratory illnesses protocol in place.
“We treat COVID no differently to any other respiratory illness.
“But we want to ensure that we have our protocols working as well and dealing with these illnesses and minimising them is a part and parcel of every Olympic Games.”