Cameron van der Burgh, the 2012 Olympic 100m breaststroke champion and former World champion and record holder from South Africa, has been battling coronavirus COVID-19 infection for the past fortnight and has taken to social media to explain how tough it’s been even for a fit, young man whose athletic prime was just yesterday.
Read SwimmingWorld Magazine and Cameron van der Burgh’s thread on Twitter
1/ Some personal thoughts/observations for athletes health,The summer games & my own experience with contracting Covid19.
— Cameron van der Burgh (@Cameronvdburgh) March 22, 2020
2/ I have been struggling with Covid-19 for 14 days today. By far the worst virus I have ever endured despite being a healthy individual with strong lungs(no smoking/sport), living a healthy lifestyle and being young (least at risk demographic)
— Cameron van der Burgh (@Cameronvdburgh) March 22, 2020
3/ Although the most severe symptoms(extreme fever) have eased, I am still struggling with serious fatigue and a residual cough that I can’t shake. Any physical activity like walking leaves me exhausted for hours.
— Cameron van der Burgh (@Cameronvdburgh) March 22, 2020
4/ The loss in body conditioning has been immense and can only feel for the athletes that contract Covid-19 as they will suffer a great loss of current conditioning through the last training cycle. Infection closer to competition being the worst.
— Cameron van der Burgh (@Cameronvdburgh) March 22, 2020
5/ Athletes will continue to train as there is no clarification re summer Games and thus are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk – and those that do contract will try rush back to training most likely enhancing/extending the damage/recovery time.
— Cameron van der Burgh (@Cameronvdburgh) March 22, 2020
6/ Please, look after yourself everyone! Health comes first – COVID-19 is no joke!
— Cameron van der Burgh (@Cameronvdburgh) March 22, 2020
