Sascoc will ensure Olympic athletes are vaccinated

While the process has not yet been finalised, the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) has assured that all members of the national squad will be offered vaccines ahead of this year’s Tokyo Games.

Sascoc president Barry Hendricks confirmed on Tuesday that multiple options were available and the umbrella organisation was still in discussions with government.

The Chinese Olympic Committee announced last month it would make vaccines available to all participants in countries which had approved the Sinovac and Sinopham vaccines which had been developed in China.

The International Olympic Committee had also confirmed it would cover the costs.

“We need to ensure we are covering all our bases and researching all our options, including the Sputnik V vaccine which is being supplied by Anoca (Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa),” Hendricks said.

While athletes would be given the option to be vaccinated, however, Hendricks said Sascoc could not force them to do so.

“They will be given the option, as per IOC and government policy, along with Sascoc staff and team management who are attending the Games,” he said.

It remained unclear how many vaccines would be required for the South African contingent at the multi-sport showpiece, which starts in July, as the qualifying window had not yet closed in some codes.

With costs being covered, however, no resources would need to be set aside by the cash-strapped national Olympic committee.

“We are currently working on a base figure of about 200 but there could be as many as 330 people in the team,” Hendricks said.

“We need to make another presentation to government and then we will know more about the process moving forward.”