Novak Djokovic would rather stop chasing tennis history than get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I understand that not being vaccinated today, I’m unable to travel to most of the tournaments at the moment. That is the price that I’m willing to pay,” the Serbian tennis star told BBC News in an interview posted Tuesday morning.
He then replied “yes” when asked if he’d be willing to pay the price of missing the next two Grand Slam tournaments, the French Open (scheduled for May 22-June 5) and Wimbledon (scheduled for June 27-July 10).
The unvaccinated Djokovic was deported from Australia last month after losing a last-ditch effort to stay in the country and play in the Australian Open. The tournament organizers had given him an exemption to their COVID-19 entry rules under the guise Djokovic had antibodies after recovering from the coronavirus in December. The exemption was overturned by the Australian government and courts, which canceled his visa after a 10-day battle with Djokovic’s legal team.
With the Serbian star out of the field, Rafael Nadal won the Aussie title and broke the three-way tie with Djokovic and Roger Federer for the most Grand Slam titles in men’s history with 21.
Making his first public comments since the Australia debacle, Djokovic said he understood and knew the consequences of his decision not to get vaccinated and “was prepared not to go” to the Australian Open.
“I understand and support fully the freedom to choose whether you want to get vaccinated or not,” he said. “I was never against vaccination. I understand that globally, everyone is trying to put a big effort into handling this virus and seeing, hopefully, an end, soon, to this virus. And vaccination is probably the biggest effort that was made ... and I fully respect that.
“But I’ve always represented and supported the freedom to choose what you put into your body. And for me it’s really the principle of understanding what is right and what is wrong for you. And me as an elite professional athlete, I’ve always carefully reviewed, assessed everything that comes in from supplements, food, water that I drink, sports drinks, anything really that comes into my body as a fuel. Based on all the informations that I got, I decided not to take the vaccine as of today.”
Djokovic intentionally repeated that he’s not vaccinated and that his decision not to get vaccinated is based on the information about the vaccines “today” and did not rule out getting some kind of COVID-19 vaccine in the future.
“I keep my mind open,” he said, “because we are all trying to find, collectively, a best possible solution to end COVID, right? I mean no one really wants to be in this kind of situation that we’ve been in collectively for two years. I’m part of a sport, a very global sport that is played every single week in a different location.”
But trying to be part of the collective solution and refusing to get any of the vaccines readily available and approved by governments around the world for the sake of public health is just more nonsensical talk from Djokovic. Unless he has some allergy to a component of any of the vaccines that he doesn’t want to say, then his refusal to get vaccinated will always come off as backward — a martyr to anti-vaxxers and an imbecile to science and public health.
No one is forcing Djokovic to get vaccinated and if he stays out of tennis, that’s just an opportunity lost for the 34-year-old champion to add to his Grand Slam resume.
Ninety-seven of the top 100 players on the men’s tour have been vaccinated, according to the ATP.
“The principles of decision making on my body are more important than any title or anything else,” Djokovic said. “I’m trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can.”
