By Cindy Boren June 2 at 2:11 PM
Cyclist Tejay van Garderen has removed his name from from consideration for the U.S. team that will compete in the Rio Olympics, becoming what is believed to be the first U.S. athlete to back out because of concerns about the Zika virus.
Van Garderen, who was likely to make the team, is concerned that, if he contracted Zika, he could pass it along to his pregnant wife, who is due to give birth in October.
“If Jessica were not pregnant right now, assuming I was selected, I would go,” he told Cyclingtips. “But the fact is, she is pregnant. If we were just going to start trying, I’d say we could start trying six months after the Olympics. But when she has a baby in her belly, I don’t want to take any chances.”
Catholic faith, and the courage to defend it, hardest hit. Story at eleven.
This young man has given up his Olympic dream for what will most likely turn out to be junk science. What a shame.
I am past the age of wortying about childbirth. If you gave me tickets to the Olympic events I would not go.
Rio is a dangerous and dysfunctional city. Zika is just a part of the problem. Crimes against tourists on the rise, unsanitary water and food, overall pollution.
There will be more protests against the government as the olympics get closer.
What does religion have to do with it?
Brazil has the world’s largest population of Roman Catholics and is the world’s most populous Catholic-majority country. The comings and goings of Brazillians are in the spotlight now as with no other country, and with the Olympics in Rio this summer, millions, perhaps a billion or more people are now developing their first in-depth impression of the country and its people. The Zika virus hoax, being apparently deliberately intended to induce women who are currently pregnant to abort, and woman who are not pregnant but desire children in the future to nevertheless delay pregnancy indefinitely by taking steps to contracept or by avoiding the marital act entirely, goes to the heart of Catholic life and faith like a smartbomb. When maximum damage is done media concerns about the Zika virus will slip beneath the waves, never to be heard of again, and nobody will be held responsible.
I think we have a new wacko poster. Could we possibly keep right-wing religious politics off this blog? If not I will not be able to read it any more.
Why the special carve-out, 8:23pm?