British athlete Greg Rutherford freezes sperm over Olympics Zika fears

The British Olympian Greg Rutherford has frozen a sample of his sperm before attending the Olympic Games in Rio because of his concerns over the Zika virus.

Rutherford's partner, Susie Verrill, said the couple, who have a son called Milo, decided to freeze his sperm because they wanted to have more children in the future and were worried about the risks of the disease. Zika infections in pregnant women have been linked to babies being born with microcephaly, or an unusually small skull, and other severe brain defects.

Verrill revealed in an article for Standard Issue magazine that she and Milo would not travel to Brazil to watch Rutherford, who won gold in the long jump at the London 2012 Games.

“The Zika news has caused no end of concern if we’re totally honest,” she wrote. “We’re not ones to worry unnecessarily, but after more than 100 medical experts stressed the Games should be moved to prevent the disease from spreading, this was a huge factor in us choosing to stay put.

“We’ve also made the decision to have Greg’s sperm frozen. We’d love to have more children and with research in its infancy, I wouldn’t want to put myself in a situation which could have been prevented.

“Specialists still also don’t know the ins and outs of Zika, so even though it looks as though there’s no real issue should Milo get bitten, it’s just another thing we don’t want to chance.”

Verrill said other reasons for remaining at home included the cost of flights and the lack of time she would spend with Rutherford because he would be “holed up in the athletes’ village from day one until he leaves and two weeks prior to actually competing in Rio he’ll be staying in a holding camp”.

Verrill's article came days after the US cyclist Tejay Van Garderen pulled out of the Games over fears for his pregnant wife. The Fijian Vijay Singh and Australian Marc Leishman have also withdrawn from the golf event.

Last week more than 100 health experts wrote an open letter urging the International Olympic Committee to move or postpone the Games because of the increased risk of spreading the disease.

"The fire is already burning but that is not a rationale not to do anything about the Olympics," said one signatory, the University of Ottawa professor Amir Attaran who wrote about his concerns in an article for the Harvard Public Health Review. "It is not the time now to throw more gasoline on to the fire."

But the World Health Organisation has resisted calls for such action, and on Monday, Brazil's sports minister, Leonardo Picciani, predicted there would be virtually no new cases of Zika during the Olympics.

Picciani, who recently became the third person to fill the role in three months, said: “We hosted 43 test events in Rio with 7,000 athletes and we have not had any case of Zika or dengue [fever]. We had a very significant reduction. We had 4,300 cases in April, which fell to 700 in May and there will be another significant reduction in June or July, and in August it will be very close to zero.

“All the mechanisms of prevention and protection are guaranteed. I would say to any athlete, to any visitor planning on coming to Rio, you do not have to worry, Rio and Brazil have prepared for this moment.”

(Guardian service)