Ontario Lockdown Poses Potential Threat To Upcoming Canadian Olympic Trials

According to a report from CTV news, the province of Ontario has announced a four-week-long stay-at-home order that will begin on Thursday, April 8th, 2021.

CBC News has reported that the province announced 3,215 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, which marks the highest single-day number since January 17, 2021. The province has been trending upwards all week, having reported 2,938 infections on Monday, the 5th, and 3,065 infections on Tuesday, the 6th. Also according to the CBC, those numbers have caused the 7-day average of coronavirus cases to jump from 2,316 one week ago to 2,987 as of April 7, 2021.

In addition to rising cases, the province of Ontario has faced criticism for its vaccination rollout, according to a report from CP24. Many critics in the province have suggested that poor communication regarding the province’s vaccination plans has left many people confused. John Greenburg, a professor of crisis communications at the University of Carleton in Ottawa went on record saying that “There do not appear to be any core principles guiding the provincial response and it’s not clear from one day to the next who is in charge, “Is it the premier, the chief medical officer of health, general Hillier, or the regional health units?”

According to current stats from the Covid-19 Tracker Canada, 2,726,221 doses of the vaccines had been administered as of Wednesday, April 7 at 9:05 am CST. That number accounts for 67.8% of the 4,022,875 vaccines that have been delivered to the province. With the 2,726,221 that have been administered, 16.3% of the population of Ontario have received at least one dose.

The month-long lockdown is expected to look similar to the province’s second major lockdown which was put in place in January of 2021. During the second lockdown, high-performance athletes in the province were permitted to continue training while following strict COVID-19 protocols.

Dave Ling, head coach of the Newmarket Stingrays which is located just north of Toronto, shared his concerns over the implications of the stay-at-home order, specifically as they relate to the upcoming Canadian Olympic Trials which are set to be held in Toronto from May 24th to the 28th.

Ling suggests that while the currently proposed month-long lockdown will be over by the 6th of May, an 18-day turnaround to have athletes travel from around the country and race at Trials seems unlikely. While Ontario doesn’t require those arriving from other Canadian provinces to isolate, it is unclear whether the meet, which will bring together more than 100 athletes from around the country onto the same pool deck, will be permitted to occur by the provincial government on the heels of this lockdown.

In the wake of the announcement of the stay-at-home order by the Ontario provincial government, Swimming Canada has yet to release a statement or contingency plan relating to the Trials.

Canada’s Olympic selection meet has already been re-scheduled, having been pushed from the originally scheduled dates of April 7-11, 2021. In addition to pushing the meet to May, the meet is also a timed final-only meet and entries have been limited to 20 swimmers for each event. Further, they have already named 6 athletes to the Olympic team in the form of Kylie Masse (100/200 backstroke), Maggie MacNeil (100 butterfly) Sydney Pickrem – (200 breaststroke, 200/400 IM) Penny Oleksiak (200 freestyle), Taylor Ruck (100 freestyle), and Markus Thormeyer (200 backstroke). In addition to the meet in May, Swimming Canada also added an additional qualifier in June for those who miss out on qualification at the first meet to get a second shot at getting nominated to the team.

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Coach
3 years ago

It’s not an issue — people didn’t travel into Toronto for trials 18 days in advance in 2019. They have pre meet training scheduled for days before the meet as per usual… arrive 2-4 days beforehand, do your pre meet work and race.

Captain Ahab
3 years ago

The next headline will read “Canada withdraws from Tokyo 2021 Olympics because of Covid 19 concerns.”

Monteswim
3 years ago

Why is the 18 day window such an issue?

WestSwim
Reply to  Monteswim
3 years ago

All swimmers in Ontario attending trials are still able to train through stay at home order announced today under the hp athlete exemption. Agree, bringing swimmers together from other provinces for Trials should be fine as unlikely any swimmer ever planned on arriving 18 days in advance of Trials and would guess any US based swimmer has already absorbed the 14 day quarantine in Canada 6wks out of trials. It seems the risk is not the ability to bring all swimmers together in 18 days, the risk is the stay at home order goes beyond May 6th. Who knows and only time will tell, but best to be ready.

No training?
Reply to  Monteswim
3 years ago

No training?

Northern Swim Parent
3 years ago

They cancelled the Canadian National Championships. Not sure why the Trials are still going ahead regardless. It makes no sense.

Horninco
Reply to  Northern Swim Parent
3 years ago

Because we have proven we can safely hold sporting events without mass breakouts?

Move the trials to another location

Northern Swim Parent
Reply to  Northern Swim Parent
3 years ago

I totally agree with you. How does that justify cancelling the Canadian National Championships? It cannot be justified.

WestSwim
Reply to  Northern Swim Parent
3 years ago

Hear your frustration but at end of day we are in an Olympic year and the Canadian National Championships are not used to select the Canadian Olympic Team and Trials cuts much harder.

Northern Swim Parent
Reply to  WestSwim
3 years ago

No one is suggesting there is any connection between the Canadian National Championships and the Olympics. But there is no justification for cancelling one and not the other, or both should be run.

How can they send swimmers to Japan but cannot hold a meet in Canada? What are they doing in Japan that they cannot do in Canada? Are we incompetent?

WestCoastRefugee
3 years ago

Maybe someday in the not too distant future, we will finally get governments to understand that lockdowns do nothing to reduce the incidence of COVID-19 transmission.

SCCOACH
Reply to  WestCoastRefugee
3 years ago

Yeah… ok buddy.

signed Australia and New Zealand

Corn Pop
Reply to  SCCOACH
3 years ago

Borders , highly restricted entry & state supervised quarantine worked for Aust/ NZ .
Did you know NZ health authorities even wanted to ban returning citizens?

Last edited 3 years ago by Corn Pop
WestCoastRefugee
Reply to  SCCOACH
3 years ago

That’s rich. Australia and NZ have been a success story largely because of the fact that they completely sealed their borders. And when I say sealed, there are still tons of AUS citizens stranded in other countries that can’t get home. Answer me this, if lockdowns work, at least in the sense that lockdowns would occur in North America then why are states like TX and FLA not imploding with COVID cases and deaths?

Matterson
Reply to  WestCoastRefugee
3 years ago

I can’t comment on the current state of Florida or Texas, but Ontario is currently experiencing a 3000 new case per day clip. The hospitals are near capacity already, if they don’t take action the hospitals will be run over completely. Lockdowns are the only option to stop the spread until enough vaccine supply can be distributed. They’ve tried to relax restrictions which is why we’re here in the first place.

Arisuin
Reply to  WestCoastRefugee
3 years ago

Or maybe we get governments that know how to communicate better…?

Hswimmer
3 years ago

Wow….

Old Rocket Swimmer
3 years ago

Sad