Rio Olympics: Athletes Taking Precautions Against Zika

We’ve known for a while now that a number of the world’s best athletes – including Jason Day, Stephen Curry and Tejay van Garderen – decided to skip the 2016 Rio Olympics because of a Zika virus that created over 165,000 suspected and confirmed cases in Brazil before the games even began. We also know that for many of the athletes who did make the trip to Rio despite concerns over the virus, some decided to freeze their sperm and carry Zika-proof condoms as preventative measures.

Now that they’re actually in Rio, a number of athletes have gone a step further by equipping their Olympic Village rooms with actual mosquito nets over their beds. There are even some, like Australian basketball player Liz Cambage, who have been rocking mosquito net suits in their rooms from time-to-time to fight off any critters that dare enter their personal space.

#Rio2016 athletes strive hard to prevent Zika from freezing semen to Zika-proof condom, but mosquito net is best way pic.twitter.com/jkOgEuSWwE

— Team China (@XHSports) August 9, 2016

Fortunately, there hasn’t been much talk about the Zika virus over the last week. According to USA Today, athletes and fans have barely seen a mosquito in Rio and only a small percentage have come in contact with them outside of the Sambodromo once the sun has set for the night. The Huffington Post also stated that there were only 140 reported cases of Zika in Rio in July compared to nearly 8,000 in January, which is an encouraging sign as the games progress.

Even so, you can never to do too much to protect yourself against those damn mosquitoes.