U.S. Olympic swimmer: Despite Zika fears, ‘I’m going to go anyway’

There are some athletes who desperately wanted out of these Olympics.

But there are many more – such as Charlotte Olympic swimmer Cammile Adams – who desperately wanted in. How desperately?

“You could tell me I’m going to get Zika,” Adams told me, “and I’m going to go anyway.”

The Zika virus, transmitted by mosquitoes, is no joking matter. Zika infection during a pregnancy can cause a serious birth defect called microcephaly as well as other severe brain defects. Zika is a public health emergency in Brazil, where the Olympics officially begin Aug. 5.

But Adams wasn’t joking. She is 24, getting married in October and hopes to have children sometime in the distant future. The native Texan rests smack in the middle of the “You Need To Worry About Zika” demographic.

For Adams, though, Zika and all the rest of Brazil’s problems never made a dent in her will to compete in her second Olympics and win her first medal.

“The U.S. Olympic Committee is going to take care of us,” said Adams, a bubbly optimist who has a twin sister and was elected by her teammates as one of the Olympic swim team’s captains last week. “I’m not really worried about it.”

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