Michael Andrew, an Unvaccinated American Swimmer, Faces Backlash for Going Maskless in Olympics Interview

Michael Andrew, an American swimmer who is unvaccinated, is facing backlash after reportedly refusing to wear a mask while doing interviews at the Olympics.

The 22-year-old U.S. swimmer placed fifth in the men’s 200m individual medley on Friday morning (July 30) and USA Today reports that he refused to mask up while appearing in the mixed zone after the race.

The outlet asked Michael why he wouldn’t wear a mask, like all of his U.S. teammates have been during interviews.

Click inside to find out his response…

“For me it’s pretty hard to breathe in after kind of sacrificing my body in the water, so I feel like my health is a little more tied to being able to breathe than protecting what’s coming out of my mouth,” he said. “I think it’s great that there’s procedures, but at the end of the day, all of us here have been under quarantine and in the same testing protocol, so there’s a level of safety (that’s) comfortable when we’re racing.”

Michael was then asked why he’s the only American most masked up and he responded by saying, “No reason. I’ll throw it on when I’m done here, but to speak, it’s difficult, probably people can hear me.”

Michael previously explained why he did not get vaccinated and he confirmed that he contracted COVID-19 months ago.

He said, “I am not fully vaccinated, I’m not vaccinated. My reason behind it is, for one, it was kind of a last moment, I didn’t want to put anything in my body that I didn’t know how I would potentially react to. As an athlete on the elite level, everything you do is very calculated and understood. For me, in the training cycle, especially leading up to trials, I didn’t want to risk any days out. There were periods where you take a vaccine, you have to deal with some days off.”

Another U.S. swimmer made headlines this week for another reason.