Like Noah Lyles, Olympians with COVID are competing. Restrictions are a thing of the past

PARIS (AP) — Many hoped the Paris Olympics would be the post-COVID Games. Instead they seem to be the “who cares about COVID” Games.

Noah Lyles won a bronze with the virus in front of tens of thousands of spectators, and dozens of other athletes at the Games have tested positive. But organizers have only issued health recommendations, and no restrictions, allowing athletes to compete if they wish and are able to.

This comes in sharp contrast with the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, which had to be delayed by a year because of the pandemic and were held under intense COVID-19 regulations — and no fans allowed at any events. Six months later, the Winter Games in Beijing had even stricter protocols because of China’s zero-tolerance policy.

In Paris, the Olympics recall pre-COVID-19 times. French people have revived the double-cheeked greeting embrace — “la bise.” Fans joyfully reach out at venues to slap athletes’ hands. Masks are rarely seen in crowds of supporters, and people from across the world came to France without proof of vaccines or negative virus tests.

The World Health Organization said earlier this week that at least 40 athletes at the Olympics had tested positive for the virus, amid growing cases worldwide.

On Thursday night, Lyles was carted off the track in a wheelchair after he finished third in the 200 meters. He then said he had tested positive for COVID-19 two days before. On Friday, he sported a mask while accepting his bronze medal, waving to fans while keeping a distance from the other winners.

Last week, British star Adam Peaty tested positive less than 24 hours after claiming a swimming silver medal. He said he first began feeling ill a day earlier ahead of the 100-meter breaststroke final.

The Australian delegation in Paris said five COVID-19-hit players on its women’s water polo team were clear to practice when they feel well enough to train.

COVID-19 “is being treated like any other respiratory disease,” International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said Friday. “It is being treated like flu now, so there is no obligation for any special measures or notifications.”

COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency according to the WHO, and with much higher vaccination levels now than during the previous two Olympics, it is treated like any other respiratory illness. There has been a surge of COVID-19 globally this summer, but because of vaccination and prior infection, most cases are mild unless people are over 65 or have underlying conditions.

Paris 2024 organizers remind athletes of “good practices” if they experience respiratory symptoms, including wearing a mask in the presence of others, limiting contacts and washing hands regularly. National Olympic committees and federations can add further measures.

The Olympic Village is equipped with its own clinic offering a broad range of health care services at no cost to athletes.

The Tokyo Games in August 2021 were held before most countries had finished their immunization programs, and when vaccine supplies were still quite limited. Athletes, media and other visitors had to submit saliva samples daily, with thousands of tubes being submitted and tested over the course of the Games. Surges in positive cases outside the Olympic bubble had provoked the government to declare increasingly widespread states of emergency.

Any positive tests led to immediate isolation at a separate “COVID-19 hotel.” Anyone with significant symptoms was hospitalized.

All Olympic visitors had to have two negative COVID-19 tests before boarding flights to Japan, and they were tested again upon arrival.

Olympic dining facilities had plastic screens between each seat, and diners had to wear gloves to pick up their food. No fans were allowed at any events, leading to strange scenes, with sound echoing through empty stadiums and coaches able to be heard encouraging their athletes.

The rules at the Winter Games in Beijing in February 2022 were even stricter.

Olympic organizers operated a health security bubble — called a “closed-loop management system” — even for vaccinated people before, during and after the Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

No fans from outside China were allowed in. Any Olympic media or sports official had to test negative.

Any Olympic volunteers from China had to go to individual hotel rooms and quarantine for three weeks before the Olympics and for three weeks after the Games before returning home. They had food delivered and were not allowed to leave their rooms.

Anyone who tested positive was immediately isolated.

France once had tight COVID-19 restrictions, including lockdowns when the pandemic broke out in 2020, followed by mandatory regulations to wear masks outdoors, an 8-month nightly coronavirus curfew and vaccine requirements. The country lifted isolation measures last year, instead advising people to follow basic health recommendations — just in time for Olympics that organizers labeled the “Games Wide Open.”