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He is both a COVID-19 survivor but also one of the minority of athletes preparing for these beleaguered Games that has refused to become vaccinated. Andrew, who is scheduled to compete in the 100-metre breaststroke, the 200-metre individual medley and the 50-metre freestyle, has his reasons. But for many, they aren’t sitting well. “My reason behind it is, for one, it was kind of last moment (and) I didn’t want to put anything in my body that I didn’t know how I would potentially react to,” Andrew said during a pre-Olympics video press conference. “As an athlete on the elite...

Team U.S.A. swimmer Michael Andrew informed the press that he refused to take any of the coronavirus vaccines ahead of the Tokyo Olympic games. He explained his reasoning for not getting vaccinated: “I didn’t want to put anything in my body that I didn’t know how I would potentially react to,” the swimmer said. “As an athlete on the elite level, everything we do is very calculated. For me in the training cycle, especially leading up to trials, I didn’t want to risk any days out because we do know that there are periods where getting the vaccine, you have...

But not Michael Andrew. He said he didn’t want it to interfere with his training, figuring it might cause him to miss a few days of practice. You know, side effects and all. The vaccine probably affected the training of Olympic gold medalists Ledecky and Manuel too, but they went ahead and got the shots, gladly doing their part to not only keep themselves safe, but also those around them, including their future Olympic swimming teammates. But Andrew? The 22-year-old who said he contracted COVID months ago decided he didn’t need to do any of that. Speaking on the YouTube...