Covid and the 2024 Olympic Games - Denial on the World Stage
"No Olympic Athletes will get Long Covid! No one I know even has it!" An examination of the denial, gaslighting and ignorance that exists around chronic illness and invisible disabilities.
“No Olympic athletes are going to get Long Covid! It’s been 4 years and I don’t know anyone who has Long Covid!”
Those of us who are Covid cautious or dealing with chronic illness hear this all the time. People genuinely believe they don’t know anyone with Long Covid. Or they’ve successfully managed to deny their existence.
I’m here to tell you that you DO know someone afflicted by this condition. You likely know multiple people. Many folks don’t disclose their disabilities for fear of ableist backlash. Others don’t connect the dots and may not realize they have Long Covid.
The sad reality is that like many other chronic illnesses - Long Covid is poorly recognized and likely underdiagnosed. Many patients are dismissed with “anxiety” by doctors who don’t understand the nature of these conditions.
Others can’t afford to seek healthcare as they’ve already lost work and/or income due to being chronically ill. Some may not have safe access to care due to lack of masking and clean air in hospitals. They KNOW they’re sick but can’t risk re-infection.
There are those who are suffering from Long Covid and don’t realize it. They either can’t connect the dots (due to denial or lack of information) or they’ve convinced themselves it’s just “aging” or “stress”.
It’s alarming how many people in their twenties and thirties are writing off very serious physical symptoms as “getting older.” You shouldn’t be too exhausted to function in your twenties. Everything shouldn’t hurt. You should be able to smell your food. You shouldn’t be sick all the time. People don’t seem to realize that they’re sicker now than they were five years ago. That ‘summer colds’ that last for weeks aren’t the norm. That they shouldn’t be ill 4-5 times a year. The denial is VERY strong.
Then there’s those who know they have Long Covid - but choose to keep it quiet from friends and family. Ableism runs deep in our society - and when you admit to being chronically ill you may find yourself judged, ridiculed, disbelieved or abandoned.
Many chronic illnesses are invisible - you won’t KNOW someone has them unless they CHOOSE to tell you. People in my life had no idea I was disabled until I began advocating for disability rights. I could hide symptoms well enough to not tip them off and I didn’t volunteer the information.
Looking back I’m embarrassed by how long it took me to publicly admit I was disabled. The fear I had about sharing it is an indictment of how cruel people can be. Everyone preaches tolerance and acceptance - but few actually practice it in real life.
Image Description: A photo of the Eiffel Tower with the 2024 Paris Olympics sign attached to it.
There’s also an extra stigma associated with Long Covid because it forces people to think about a period in their lives they’re desperately trying to forget. It challenges the narrative that we’re “back to normal”.
Stigma has always been an issue for those with disabilities and chronic illness - but I think that people with Long Covid are perhaps feeling that burden more than others. This is due to the political division in society and the residual anger around pandemic policies. Many people are so determined to believe Covid is over/mild that they will get angry at those who challenge that narrative. Unfortunately just BEING disabled by Covid means you’re challenging a person’s ability to believe Covid is no longer a threat.
The stigma, ableism and risk of abandonment are all reasons that someone might choose to keep their disabilities quiet. I lost many friends and loved ones when they found out I was sick. Some losses were immediate and brutal - people who carelessly tossed me by the wayside because they instantly put me into the “less than” category.
Other losses were slower and more painful - because they involved false hope. They were the ones who stuck around at first - who applauded me for telling them the truth and who offered help and support.
Many did help - until they stopped. They almost all stop eventually.
I wish more people would understand how quickly support disappears when you don’t “get better.” Even those who say they’re going to stick around eventually grow tired of the fact that you’re “always sick.” They grow bored of you. One by one they disappear.
It ends up being a lonely life - and the pandemic has only intensified those feelings. If you’re lucky enough to have people stick by you - you have to constantly risk assess whether they might infect you with a virus that will disable you even further. It’s exhausting.
All these pitfalls and landmines take an incredible amount of energy - and its energy most of us simply don’t have to spare. It’s hard to fault someone for not admitting they have Long Covid when the admission could upend their world.
If you don’t tell others you’re disabled - you can at least TRY and pretend that everyone in your life will stand by you. That they aren’t ableists who view people like us as “less than”. If you tell them the truth you’re risking a tremendous amount of pain.
That brings us back to the Olympians. People who are revered the world over for their physical prowess. For their strength, fitness and ability to perform. Their entire careers are based on health status - on being the best of the best. On being able to “power through.”
Their Covid infections are also very public - with the entire world hearing about each positive test, setback and missed opportunity. They’re already setting up the “inspirational narrative” of the Olympians sick with COVID who “overcame to win a medal.”
Adam Peaty - a swimmer from Great Britain - won silver and tested positive for Covid the next morning. When asked if he felt Covid was an excuse as to why he didn’t win Gold - his response was the following:
"I've continued to fight and find new ways to enjoy something that has broken me to the core and to end up with an Olympic silver through all of that is an absolute blessing. I'm more proud of the man and athlete I am from last night than I have been across my entire career."
Unfortunately - responses Like Peaty’s are what society wants. They want the story of people pushing through against the odds. Of triumphantly overcoming Covid and coming out braver and stronger for it. Which is exactly what Peaty and the 2024 Olympic Games are serving up.
They don’t want the story of the person who ends up bedridden because they were too stubborn to wear a mask. The person who can’t compete again because they’re completely disabled. The person who’s life will never be the same. Those stories don’t make people feel good. They don’t fuel the narrative that Covid is nothing to worry about.
For these reasons I’m skeptical that any Olympians will admit it if they end up completely disabled by Long Covid1. They will simply quietly disappear. The same way many of us who aren’t in the spotlight have been quietly disappeared from our own lives.
People have forgotten we exist. They stop calling. They stop visiting. They unfriend and unfollow. They don’t have to face the fact that we’re still here - but we’re very sick. They don’t WANT to face it. We end up slipping away with very few people left to witness our decline.
The disappearing of disabled people is exactly WHY others remain convinced they don’t know anyone with Long Covid. Why they’re so sure no Olympians will develop it. We need more visibility. To emerge from the shadows and have people confront the realities of chronic illness.
I sincerely hope that when an elite athlete is left disabled from covid -
they’re able to get a firm diagnosis and tell the world. I hope they will stand up and admit that their career is over due to a virus that everyone has decided is “mild” and not worth worrying about.
Perhaps if someone influential was willing to put themselves out there and risk the judgement and ridicule so many of us already face - we could begin to see positive changes. We could begin to see recognition of the severity of Long Covid. Of the need to reduce spread.
My fear is that we are so desperate to believe that Covid is mild - so utterly convinced that repeated infections aren’t causing long term harm - that no one will listen unless it’s someone incredibly high profile who ends up disabled. Who ends up dedicating their life to advocacy. That’s what we need. Athletes who quietly step aside due to Long Covid will instantly be forgotten - and change won’t happen.
If that moment ever comes - I hope it will help the world understand the need to start caring about Covid again. We don’t need lockdowns - we need common sense measures to reduce spread. We need to recognize the long term consequences of repeat infections and give people the tools to keep themselves and their families safe. We need to help people understand how important it is to protect our children and vulnerable populations from forced infections. Help them see the value in clean air. Help them stop normalizing constant sickness.
When we finally DO recognize these needs - real change can happen and healing can begin.
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For more on Covid and the 2024 Olympic Games - including athletes who tested positive - read ’s excellent article The Covid Summer Games.
Some Olympians have made their battle with Long Covid public - but they’ve not received the media attention one would hope. One such example is Oonagh Cousins - a rower from Great Britain.
💥every word! But this, I really notice in the general population: “People don’t seem to realize that they’re sicker now than they were five years ago. That ‘summer colds’ that last for weeks aren’t the norm. That they shouldn’t be ill 4-5 times a year. The denial is VERY strong.”
Also, I’ve come to realise in my own journey that we do not have a clue what health is. Media painting the picture that somehow who hammers them self into the ground to get a silver badge is not a picture of true health.
Physical health is only one aspect of health. Though we hear of it, we don’t truly understand mental health. Haven’t even yet begun to explore emotional health. And movies take the piss out of spiritual health. All aspects of health are crucial to the true meaning of health. And now we need to be including financial health (even though those pieces of paper with silver strips in are something we’ve created ourselves).
Yes to all of this, and - with over 40 athletes testing positive at the Olympics, we know that likely 2-4 of them will end up as long haulers (5-10%). Elite athletes may be even more prone than others, according to a recent Substack post by Walter Chestnut.