Will van Garderen’s Olympic exit convince others to skip Rio?

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In case you have been ignoring the Internet, the entire sports world is embroiled in a debate over the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and Brazil’s widening outbreak of the Zika virus. Last week, more than 100 doctors and professors wrote an open letter to the World Health Organization asking for the games to be postponed or moved.

Should the IOC cancel the games, relocate them, postpone them, or simply go forward? As the weeks go by, more doctors, scientists, and even athletes are weighing in.

The most recent public opinion comes from our sport’s very own Tejay van Garderen, who told Cyclingnews.com that he plans to skip the games due to his fears over Zika.

From Cyclingnews.com:

“I know the risks are small, and there are precautions you can take, but the fact is I just don’t want to risk bringing anything into the house that could potentially have an effect, however small the chances are.”

The news makes van Garderen the highest profile American athlete to skip the games explicitly due to Zika. He’s not the first athlete, however. Fiji’s former No. 1 golfer Vijay Singh and Australian golfer Marc Leishman have already bailed out of the Olympics, and both cited Zika as the culprit.

There’s also a growing list of athletes who have publicly stated their fears about Zika, from soccer stars Hope Solo and Alex Morgan, to Kenya’s entire Olympic team. The United States Olympic …

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