Noah Lyles’ decision to race with Covid-19 was a risky one, experts say

(CNN) — US sprinter Noah Lyles’ admission that he raced in the men’s 200 meters at the Paris Olympics on Thursday after testing positive for Covid-19 has reignited a familiar debate: whether it’s OK to treat Covid like any other respiratory infection.

The Games’ organizers, the Paris 2024 committee, said in a statement Friday that there are no specific Covid protocols in place this year. Instead, they are reminding everyone attending the Games of “good practices to adopt should they experience any respiratory symptoms.” Those include wearing a mask in the presence of others, limiting contacts and regularly washing hands or using hand sanitizer.

The committee said each national Olympic committee and the International Olympic Federation is also free to put in place additional measures for its athletes or competitions, but few have chosen to do so. Instead, the decision about whether to compete has largely been left up to the athletes themselves.

A least one bioethicist said it’s not conscionable to leave the decision up to the athletes, many of whom have trained for years for a chance to compete on the world stage.

“They will all say yes,” said Dr. Art Caplan, head of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.

“The whole point of having health and medical expertise at any event including the Olympics is to insure the health, short and long term, of the athletes, staff, coaches and officials. Anyone with covid should be isolating. Anyone at high risk from covid should not be sanctioned to compete,” Caplan said in a statement.

The lack of guardrails for Covid-positive athletes in Paris stands in stark contrast to the eerily quiet 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, which were delayed until 2021 because of the pandemic and then held without spectators.

The relaxed guidelines at this year’s Games fall in line with recent guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In February, the CDC loosened its recommendation that people should isolate themselves from others for at least five days after a positive Covid test. The agency now says infected people should stay home until they’ve been fever-free for 24 hours without medication and their symptoms have been improving for 24 hours.

Lyles has been open about his health issues. In an August 4 tweet from the Olympics, he wrote, “I have Asthma, allergies, dyslexia, ADD, anxiety, and Depression. But I will tell you that what you have does not define what you can become. Why Not You!”

After Lyles placed third Thursday in a race he was widely expected to win, he collapsed, breathing heavily. He had to be helped off the track in a wheelchair.

“I was quite light-headed after that race – shortness of breath, chest pain – but after a while, I could catch my breath and get my wits about me. I’m a lot better now,” he said in an interview after the race with Olympic broadcaster NBC.

On Thursday, Lyles said he felt like the infection affected his performance. “I’ve had to take a lot of breaks. … I was coughing through the night. I’m more proud of myself than anything, coming out here to get a bronze with Covid.”

USA Track and Field said it supported Lyles’ decision.

“After a thorough medical evaluation, Noah chose to compete tonight. We respect his decision and will continue to monitor his condition closely,” it said in a statement.

Lyles said he had moved into quarantine at a hotel after he tested positive on Tuesday morning.

He wore a mask during warmups Thursday but not during the race or while hugging his fellow competitors after the event.

“The fact that he risked infection and the health of his competitors by embracing them in close quarters … it’s maddening,” said Nathan Crumpton, who has taken part in the skeleton event in the Winter Olympics and track and field in the Summer Games in Tokyo.

Crumpton said he had hoped to train for the Paris Olympics, which would have been his third, but caught Covid for the first time in in January and still hasn’t fully recovered. Crumpton, who says he is fully vaccinated, has documented his case on YouTube.

“It’s irresponsible and ignorant, and I hope he didn’t infect anyone else,” Crumpton said of Lyles’ decision to compete.

Beyond the risk to other athletes, Lyles may have put his own health at greater risk, said Dr. Isabell von Loga, a researcher at University Hospital Zurich who has been treating Crumpton.

“Competing at this level and this intensity means putting your cardiovascular system under maximal stress, not just from the actual race but also the warm-up as well as the psychological strain of competing,” she said in an email.

She notes that some long Covid experts have advised six weeks of rest for Covid-positive athletes before they return to training.

“There is a genuine risk that he put his long-term health at risk. But of course, time will tell and we truly wish to him that this will not happen,” von Loga wrote.

“Covid is NOT just another respiratory disease. It affects all systems of the body,” she said. “I understand that we all want to return to normal. However, ignoring the facts along the way is not going to make it go away.”

CNN’s David Close, Amanda Davies and Kyle Feldscher contributed to this report.

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