Annamay Pierse Points To Hobson’s Choice Of Swimmers Heading To Rio Zika Zone

The Zika virus, the risk of hastening its reach and spread as tourists flock to Rio for the Olympic Games, as well as the implications for the health and welfare of women athletes, is a story close to the heart of former world record holder Annamay Pierse.

At a time when many pro-sports athletes from golf, tennis and basketball are staying home to wash their hair or do other things rather than fly down to Rio for the Games, the ‘choice’ is one Hobson would understand, a no-brainer for swimmers and others for whom the Olympics represents the pinnacle of  their sporting days. They will go. Many will be as careful as it is possible to be, the risk to those on the wealthier and more professional teams backed by medical staff, managers and more reduced by circumstance and planning.

Some of those pros gone missing from Rio this August cite Zika and the advice of leading experts in the face of an ‘all will be well’ approach from the International Olympic Committee and its partner the World Health Organisation.

Pierse has good reason to urge caution to her peers from swimming and the sportsmen and women for whom there is more to lose if they hand in their Olympic ticket.

In an article from Postmedia Breaking News, Pierse is described as:

“Exhibit A: a living testimony to the perils of competing in a hazardous environment.”

Now 32, the 2009 world-titles medallist from Edmonton via UBC, contracted dengue fever from a mosquito bite while at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010.

That, effectively, ended her career: she might never have got back to the 2:20.12 world-record pace she mustered in shiny suit in 2009 but she would surely have been a contender for the Olympic final in 2012 had her career followed a smooth course. In textile in 2010 she was a 2:23.65 swimmer, taking bronze at Pan Pacs behind two of the biggest names among pioneers on breaststroke, Olympic champions, Rebecca Soni (USA) and Leisel Jones (AUS).

Then came Delhi and Dengue. She never got back that way again, clocking 2:27.14 at Canadian Olympic trials in 2012, what would have been her second time round the …

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