List of athletes not attending the 2016 Summer Olympics due to Zika virus concerns

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A number of sportspeople eligible for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro stated that they would not attend because of the ongoing Zika virus epidemic in Brazil. In the case of golf and tennis, media speculated that some absentees were unenthusiastic about competing in any case and used Zika as a convenient excuse. [1] [2]

Contents

Table

SportAthleteNatRef
Cycling Tejay van Garderen Flag of the United States.svg [3]
Golf Jason Day Flag of Australia (converted).svg [4]
Golf Branden Grace Flag of South Africa.svg [5]
Golf Dustin Johnson Flag of the United States.svg [6]
Golf Shane Lowry Flag of Ireland.svg [7]
Golf Rory McIlroy Flag of Ireland.svg [n 1] [10]
Golf Marc Leishman Flag of Australia (converted).svg [11]
Golf Charl Schwartzel Flag of South Africa.svg [12]
Golf Angelo Que Flag of the Philippines.svg [13]
Golf Vijay Singh Flag of Fiji.svg [14]
Golf Jordan Spieth Flag of the United States.svg [15]
Golf Graeme McDowell Flag of Ireland.svg [16]
Tennis Milos Raonic Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg [17]
Tennis Tomas Berdych Flag of the Czech Republic.svg [18]
Tennis Alexandr Dolgopolov Flag of Ukraine.svg [19]
Tennis Bob & Mike Bryan Flag of the United States.svg [20]
Tennis Simona Halep Flag of Romania.svg [18]
Tennis Karolína Plíšková Flag of the Czech Republic.svg [21]

See also

Footnotes

  1. McIlroy is from Northern Ireland and eligible for both the Ireland and Great Britain teams; in 2014 he had opted for Ireland. [8] [9]

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References

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  2. "Olympics-Golf-Zika an excuse for top ranked players, says Van Zyl". Yahoo! . Reuters. 2 August 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
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  5. "Branden Grace joins Olympics absentees due to Zika virus". Sky Sports. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
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  8. "No surprises as Ireland's Rio golf team confirmed". RTÉ.ie . 14 July 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  9. "McIlroy opts for Ireland at 2016 Olympics". RTÉ.ie . 18 June 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
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  11. "Marc Leishman Pulls Out of Olympic Golf Consideration Due to Zika Virus Threat". golf.com.
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  13. ABC News, ABC News, retrieved 31 July 2016
  14. "Vijay to skip Games citing Zika fears", Reuters, 13 April 2016, retrieved 31 July 2016
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  16. Mackay, Hamish (23 June 2016). "Graeme McDowell joins McIlroy in pulling out of Rio Olympics due to Zika virus". irishmirror. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
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