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U.S.O.P.C. Will Require Covid-19 Vaccinations for Winter Games

Any athlete vying to represent the United States at the 2022 Olympics or Paralympics in Beijing will be required to present proof of inoculation by Dec. 1.

Any athletes vying to represent the United States at the 2022 Winter Games will need to show proof of vaccination by Dec. 1 to join the Team USA delegation.Credit...Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Olympians from the United States who competed at the Tokyo Games this summer were encouraged, but not required, to be vaccinated against Covid-19. More than 80 percent of them ultimately got their shots.

But that option will not be available for athletes aiming to make the next round of Games.

On Wednesday, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee announced that all athletes and team staff members who use the organization’s training centers and facilities would need to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 1.

The organization also said that by Dec. 1 any athletes vying to represent the country at the Winter Games, which are scheduled to begin on Feb. 4 in Beijing with the Olympics followed by the start of the Paralympics on March 4, will need to show proof of vaccination to be able to join the American delegation.

The International Olympic Committee has not announced a vaccine requirement for the Beijing Games.

“The stark reality is that this pandemic is far from over,” Sarah Hirshland, the U.S.O.P.C.’s chief executive, wrote in a letter reviewed by The New York Times. “This step will increase our ability to create a safe and productive environment for Team USA athletes and staff, and allow us to restore consistency in planning, preparation and service to athletes.”

Brock Crouch, a 22-year-old from California, is an Olympic hopeful in snowboarding. He is vaccinated, he said, and supports the decision.

“We’ve been giving vaccines since we’re super young kids,” he said Thursday from a training camp in Switzerland. “If this is what it takes for us to get back to normal, and this is what it takes for us to have an event, I think that this is something that everybody has to adapt to.”

Many of the world’s top snowboarders and freeskiers are in Switzerland this fall, training for the upcoming season, and not everyone is vaccinated, Crouch said. He is not sure if any of the unvaccinated feel strongly enough about it to forgo a chance at competing in Beijing.

“Why would we travel all the way over there and take the chance of getting it?” he said of the virus.

Jim Leahy, CEO of USA Luge, said in a statement, “I can tell you that I believe the decision made by the U.S.O.P.C. is in the best interest of all athletes. Vaccinations have proven successful as a protection vehicle, so any measures to keep our athletes on the field of play is welcomed.”

The new policy, first reported by The Associated Press, takes the U.S.O.P.C. one step further than the major North American professional sports leagues, none of which has required athletes to be vaccinated to compete.

The decision reflects the severity of the ongoing global health crisis as well as the lingering uncertainty about the sort of health protocols and preventive measures that will be deployed by Olympic and Paralympic organizers in Beijing.

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The U.S. women’s national soccer team won bronze in Tokyo. Vaccination was encouraged, but not required, for American athletes at the Summer Games.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Vaccines were not required for this summer’s Tokyo Games, which were postponed by a year because of the pandemic. In July, Jonathan Finnoff, the U.S.O.P.C.’s chief medical officer, said that about 83 percent of American Olympians had been vaccinated for the Tokyo Olympics. And the I.O.C. estimated that more than 80 percent of all Olympians staying at the athletes’ village in Tokyo were fully vaccinated.

The U.S.O.P.C.’s new policy arrived amid speculation about the rules that athletes, officials, team staff members and journalists will face in China, where widespread lockdowns and strict quarantines have been fairly common during the pandemic. Athletes and officials have been bracing for any number of countermeasures, including the possibility of long quarantines and the implementation of a so-called bubble around the Games.

As it did for the Tokyo Games, the I.O.C. will release a so-called playbook next month detailing its preliminary rules and plans for preventing the spread of the virus at the 2022 Olympics. Twenty-eight athletes tested positive in Tokyo in the lead-up to the Summer Olympics and during the competition, as did 13 athletes in Tokyo for the Paralympics.

The I.O.C. created a single set of rules for Olympic participants in Tokyo, operating the Games as if no one had been vaccinated. It is unknown whether vaccinated athletes will have different privileges in Beijing.

Beyond the Winter Games, the U.S.O.P.C.’s vaccine requirement will apply to all American athletes hoping to compete at future Paralympic Games, Pan and Parapan American Games and Youth Olympic Games.

The organization left open the possibility for athletes to receive ​​medical or religious exemptions, which they would need to procure by Nov. 1.

Hirshland said in her letter that the policy had received support from the U.S.O.P.C.’s athletes’ advisory council. She added that the decision was “further reinforced by the Food and Drug Administration approval of the Pfizer vaccine and the recent mandates by the Federal Government.”

John Branch contributed reporting.

Andrew Keh is a sports reporter in New York covering the Olympic Games. He was previously an international correspondent based in Berlin and has reported from more than 25 countries. More about Andrew Keh

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Requires Covid Vaccine for Its Athletes at the Winter Games. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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