From Covidiot to Covictor - The Olympics Goes Full Circle in 3 Years

The hypocrisy of the sporting world

Only three years ago, the Tokyo Olympics treated the games like a leper colony.

The press constantly shamed people who did ridiculously dangerous things, like talking on a bus, by calling them ‘covidiots’.

These elite athletes were never in the slightest bit of danger of dying from Covid but they were threatened with being thrown out of a competition they had trained for their entire lives and may never have the opportunity to do so again.

Rearranged from 2020, the 2021 Olympics gave Olympians strict instructions on how to travel, train and compete ‘safely’. They were told that “failure to comply with these rules, such as refusal to take a test, may result in disciplinary consequences, such as the withdrawal of your accreditation and right to participate.”

Athletes had to appoint Covid-19 Liaison Officers who monitored their strict compliance. This included, daily testing, quarantining on arrival, mask wearing on the podium and during national anthems, public transport and travel bans, minimal interaction with non-Games participants and only eating where instructed. No overseas spectators were allowed to attend.

Two silver medal-winning Georgian athletes were kicked out of the Games after they were spotted committing the inexcusable crime of being outside of the designated Olympic venues.

And not in the Olympic Games but who can forget the treatment tennis player Novax Djokovic received after not being vaccinated and maybe having asymptomatic Covid (i.e. he wasn’t ill but a test said he was). Novak was locked up, had his possessions seized and shamed for attending an outdoor kids’ awards ceremony whilst he was asymptomatic.

Fast-forward three years and the Olympics doesn’t care about Covid whilst the media almost reveres anyone who has it whilst competing.

US sprinter Noah Lyles won the 100 metres by five-thousandths of a second on Sunday but only came third in the 200 metres yesterday after catching Covid.

No longer are these ‘Covidiots’ but ‘Covictors’ - brave men and women who continue competing, despite being ill. And not asymptomatically ill, actually ill with Lyles saying “I’ve had to take a lot of breaks” and “I was coughing through the night. I’m more proud of myself than anything, coming out here to get a bronze with Covid. I was quite light-headed after that race. Shortness of breath, chest pain, but after a while I could catch my breath and get my wits about me. I’m a lot better now.”

Imagine if an athlete had competed, knowingly having Covid, three years ago. And then used it as an excuse for not winning. They would have been ravaged by the media and kicked out of the Olympics. But now they are awarding themselves gold medals for competing with a respiratory virus and the media is congratulating them for it.

Not only that but they kept his illness secret. After being awake all night with aches, chills and a sore throat, Lyles’ team decided to keep Mum. “We were trying to keep this close to the chest,” he said.

"The people who knew were the medical staff, my coach, my mum. We didn't want everybody going into a panic.

"I'm competitive. Why would you give [your rivals] an edge over you?"

And that’s how it should be but that’s also how it should have been three years ago.

The only difference since the last Olympics is that enough people globally have been vaccinated. Fortunately, Lyles is one of those vaccinated with a miracle vaccine that prevents you needing a wheelchair to be dragged off an athletics track when you have Covid.