British Olympic Association CEO Bill Sweeney said the organization has no plans to move its Rio 2016 training camp in Belo Horizonte to a zika-free zone outside Brazil. Last week, Toni Minichiello, coach of British heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, said the BOA should consider moving the camp outside the country to minimize the risk of athletes contracting the virus, which has been suspected of causing birth defects such as microcephaly. Sweeney told SBD Global that Minichiello was reacting to a report that the El Salvadorian government recommends women delay pregnancy until ’18. “We don’t agree with the statements,” said Sweeney, adding the BOA takes its advice from the U.K. Foreign Office and the World Health Organization. “The World Health Organization’s advice has been, if you are infected with the zika virus, you should wait for a six month period prior to considering conception,” Sweeney said. “And their view is, that six month period is extremely cautious. … So we wouldn’t agree with what was released recently by Jess’s coach.” In addition to communication with the Foreign Office, Sweeney said the BOA is releasing advice regularly on bite prevention. “Given all the information we have at hand, and the fact that we’re talking to the sports on a very regular basis, at least weekly, providing them with the latest information and advice concerning the issue, we don’t have any plans to change any of our existing arrangements around either the pre-Games training camp, participation in Rio, when we arrive in the country and so on after,” Sweeney said. “Our plans remain the same. … There is nothing more important to us and of higher priority than the welfare of the athletes and the entire delegation, so if we had any reason to believe that they were in some way jeopardized, then of course we’d look again.”
