Viktor Axelsen who is currently in quarantine said Olympic athletes should be given priority for vaccine administration in Denmark.

Badminton players from Indonesia, Malaysia and China have already been given Covid-19 vaccines after their respective governments prioritized vaccine administration for athletes participating in the Olympics.

Danish players have not received any vaccines yet.

Last week, the Danish Health Minister said that athletes won’t get any priority status for vaccination.

Axelsen, who missed the European Championships final, told DR.dk, “I would not have flown home from European Championships final if I had gotten the vaccine. What one must understand is that we athletes have a limited lifetime, a limited number of years in which we can perform at the top level.

“I would hate to see any Danish athletes missing (the Olympics) because they got the coronavirus.”

Axelsen’s comments come after the Danish government approved vaccine for everyone above the age of 16 in some selected islands of Denmark.

“That’s why I think it’s fair that we also go out and get the vaccine now,” he added.

His opinion was met with some critics online who called him “a huge ego who wants to jump the queue”.

Axelsen countered them by making it a point that he is not speaking for himself.

He said, “I’ll most likely have antibodies until well after the Olympics. I basically do not care if I get or do not get the vaccine before the Olympics at the moment.”

In a week filled with disappointment, not all has been bad news for Viktor Axelsen.

In the latest world rankings released by the BWF, Axelsen went up by 5950 rankings points which he received from his second place in the European Championships.

By the rules of BWF, a player does not get any ranking points if he “withdraws” from a match against a player from the same country (teammate Anders Antonsen in this case).

BWF secretary general Thomas Lund said, “He gets his (ranking) points. He has not withdrawn. We have withdrawn him from the tournament.”

Players in this article