As initially reported by SwimSwam Italia’s Giusy Cisale, many of Italy’s top swimmers are continuing to announce that they have tested positive for coronavirus following the Italian Open Championships, which occurred last weekend.
Elena di Liddo and Benedetta Pilato both announced their positive cases this past week, forcing a number of other athletes to quarantine and get tested due to close contact, including Martina Carraro and Silvia di Pietro.
So far, the following athletes have announced that they either have tested positive for the virus, or that they are in quarantine awaiting their coronavirus test results:
- Ilaria Scarcella
- Martina Carraro (awaiting test results)
- Elena Di Liddo
- Benedetta Pilato (and her coach Vito D’Onghia)
- Ilaria Bianchi (awaiting test results)
- Filippo Magnini
- Giulia D’Innocenzo
- Mario Sanzullo
The rising number of positives come in spite of the fact that athletes attending the championships had to follow strict protocols.
According to the Italian Swimming Federation:
- Access to the competition facility for athletes, coaches, and managers was allowed only from the main entrance of Via Monte Rosa 60.
- It was mandatory for everyone to always bring a copy of their negative coronavirus test with them, and all participants had to follow-up with the Federal Offices 72 hours before being granted access to the competition facility. Participants also had to send the Federal Offices a copy of the test by 12:00 pm on December 15th.
- At the time of the first access, it was also necessary to hand over to the control the self-certification provided for by federal pandemic prevention rules.
In addition, it was mandatory:
- to keep masks on inside the facility, until the athlete was positioned behind the starting blocks.
- To Store belongings and clothing inside plastic bags before departure
- To observe social distancing.
- To Respect the access and use times of the swimming pool for heating
Over 450 athletes competed at the Italian Open Championships, which occurred from December 17-19, 2020 in Riccione.
Across Italy, the number of COVID-19 cases hit all-time highs in late November. Since then, the number of daily cases has decreased slightly, but still remains higher than it was during the early days of the pandemic. As a result, the Italian government has implemented new restrictions, closing many non-essential businesses and limiting travel between regions of the country.
i know that even they are positive still its normal for them for being a swimmers only to understand that even everyone gets infected still its like ordinary days for them with 1% power of the virus versus 200% lung volume i dont think it could affect their health. in my opinion those who have defeat covid are the ones weakening the virus.
According to Ilaria Bianchi (IG story on Wednesday), all the positive athletes were staying at the same hotel during Italian Championship.
And, according to Silvia di Pietro (IG post), the first athletes who tested positive shared lunch together at that same hotel.
And then, there’s the case of Di Liddo (the first positive case), Pilato and coach D’Onghia who shared hours of travel together in the same car, returning home after the Championship ended.
All federation protocols are uneffective if, outside the swimming pool, coaches and athletes from different italian region or teams share common spaces like a table during a meal or a car.
IDK If these comps were truly necessary but these swimmers took the risk wholly by themselves. Now they are infected for Christmas . Not our problemo.
Guess What? This is a virus!! These protocols are useless..78% of cases reported that they always wore masks and followed guidelines..
Why is this even reported?? They will be back in the water shortly, young, mostly asymptomatic..so tired of this!!
I’m not sure an ignorant approach is the best way to tackle a pandemic. The reason cases are reported is because attentive people crave information. One piece of information that SHOULD be important to the swimming community is the one covering the SARS-CoV-2 mutation discovered in South Africa. According to the South African Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize, the newly discovered virus variant in South Africa is causing serious illness in young healthy people without comorbidities. The theory is that the increased transmissive ability of the variant is creating a far greater initial viral load in the patient. Apparently, this is causing severe illness even in young healthy people.
At some point, the swimming community will have to face… Read more »
And what to you propose we do. Never live our lives again? Cancel everything. We’ve done that around the world and it’s still here. We can’t stop it. We are Just prolonging how long it’s Remains a serious issue. Get your head right and stop the fear.
Well, a reasonable, mature and adult approach would be to treat the pandemic with the respect it deserves until science has found a solution. If science says swimming in an indoor pool is safe, I propose we take their word for it and continue to swim. IF, however, science can’t guarantee swimmers safety we should remain vigilant and be prepared to adapt accordingly. That COULD mean acting in an unselfish way and accept that swimming will have to be shut down for a few months. That’s what happened here in the UK now.
I know that sounds hard for selfish and ignorant people, but it’s as simple as that.
I for one am rather confident the vaccines will put an… Read more »
I don’t need the condescending responses from you. Life is full of risks. The fact you fail to realize we’ve already done everything you suggested and it didn’t work only shows your ignorance. The science throughOut this entire “pandemic” has not been believable. They have changed their opinions, guidance and advice numerous times. Their math is bogus. Counting Auto accident deaths as Covid because they tested positive 4 weeks earlier is doing a disservice to everyone.
Please do what you feel is right for you and yours and I’ll do what’s I feel is right for me and mine. I’m not asking you to do anything you don’t want to so i ask the same in return.
We live in a time where a surprisingly large proportion of people are prepared to misinterpret, exaggerate, distort and even lie to avoid changing their ‘opinion’ or admitting that they are wrong. But that is not the culture of science (science is NOT an opinion), so prepare yourself for further aquatic changes as scientific advancements and knowledge regarding this virus progresses.
That said, the Office for National Statistics doesn’t count COVID-19 deaths in the UK according to the principle you describe. The official death count for the UK currently stands at 79,349 (25 December). That includes deaths where:
- The death certificate states COVID-19 as the direct cause of death (expect interstitial pneumonia, renal failure, sepsis or similar)
- The
… Read more »You know , large swathes of the world are going quite ok . Ppl are the carriers so if you cut travel you cut x infection . The only outbreaks we have on a whole continent are thru x infection by international travellers .
oh no! athletes in peak physical condition with a cough, time to ruin some more promising careers with quarantines and lockdowns
Tell that to Annamay Pierse, she contracted Dengue Fever at the Commonwealth Games and wasn’t able to train properly for over a year after. We still don’t have good data on medium and long term effects for those who have complications or longer term symptoms
from covid.
Hey hey hey, a year to get over dengue??? I’m from South America we basically “invented” dengue, I got dengue myself… it’ll take you three weeks tops to be fresh new
not having a pool to swim in anymore is also very damaging for training
That’s a good chunk of Canada right now.
You can always point to the outliers, but the data shows overwhelmingly that 99.99% percent of young athlete’s won’t be impacteduch in the short or long term.