US soccer star Hope Solo said she’d skip the Rio Olympics if they began today — due to her fears of the dangerous Zika outbreak in Brazil.
The national team goalkeeper wants to start a family someday and is too worried about birth defects linked to the mosquito-borne virus to take any chances. The Games begin Aug. 5.
“If I had to make the choice today, I wouldn’t go,” she told Sports Illustrated. “I would never take the risk of having an unhealthy child.”
Solo, 34, who is married to former Seattle Seahawks tight end Jerramy Stevens, is the world’s best-known athlete yet to hint at a personal boycott over the disease outbreak.
“I don’t know when that day will come for Jerramy and me, but I personally reserve my right to have a healthy baby,” Solo said ahead of Team USA’s match Wednesday against Costa Rica. “No athlete competing in Rio should be faced with this dilemma.”
A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention refused to respond to Solo’s comments, but told The Post that the virus only has a small window in which it can do harm.
“There is no evidence to suggest that Zika virus infection poses a risk of birth defects for future pregnancies,” Benjamin Haynes said.
The US Olympic Committee is not advising athletes to boycott the Games. “We are closely monitoring the situation,” said USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky.
Solo’s comments emerged as a top Kenyan official on Tuesday said the African nation might pull out of the Games over Zika fears. But another Kenyan Olympic official said his colleague’s comments were taken out of context and that the African nation plans to send a team to Brazil.
Meanwhile, officials in Ohio, Indiana, Delaware and Pennsylvania identified the first cases of Zika in their states Tuesday. Overall, the virus has been identified in at least 13 states and Washington, DC. No cases have been spread by mosquitoes in the United States, and officials said the estimated 50 US cases are associated with travel to affected areas. New York state’s tally remains at 12, with three from the Big Apple.
Other developments on Tuesday included:
- Brazilian researchers, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association Ophthalmology, found that Zika could be linked to eye deformities and other vision problems in newborns, in addition to unusually small head sizes in babies, called microcephaly.
- China reported its first case of Zika virus, but said the 34-year-old male patient was well on his way to recovery.
- Colombian officials said 100 people there have come down with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare nerve disorder — all of whom have been diagnosed with the Zika virus. But the World Health Organization cautioned against making any links between the two diseases: “We do not know if Zika virus infection causes GBS,” it reported.
Here’s why Zika is so scary: