--- title: Zika: British Olympian Freezing His Sperm Before Rio description: A British long jumper is planning to freeze his sperm before traveling to the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro over Zika fears canonical: https://time.com/4361101/british-olympian-freezing-his-sperm-before-rio-over-zika-fears/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-08T12:51:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:27:47.960Z article:section: Health og:title: British Olympian Freezing His Sperm Before Rio Over Zika Fears og:description: Greg Rutherford won a gold medal in 2012 og:url: https://time.com/4361101/british-olympian-freezing-his-sperm-before-rio-over-zika-fears/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2405cc774f0eb9b1/698896ec0a4a2267d29c9ff6/greg-rutherford-zika-sperm.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: FILES-OLY-2016-HEALTH-ZIKA-GBR-RUTHERFORD og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: British Olympian Freezing His Sperm Before Rio Over Zika Fears twitter:description: Greg Rutherford won a gold medal in 2012 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2405cc774f0eb9b1/698896ec0a4a2267d29c9ff6/greg-rutherford-zika-sperm.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # British Olympian Freezing His Sperm Before Rio Over Zika Fears by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jun 8, 2016 12:51 PM UTC  Greg Rutherford competing in the men's long jumps event during the Diamond League Athletics Weltklasse meeting in Zurich, Sept. 3, 2015. Greg Rutherford competing in the men's long jumps event during the Diamond League Athletics Weltklasse meeting in Zurich, Sept. 3, 2015.Michael Buholzer—AFP/Getty Images by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jun 8, 2016 12:51 PM UTC A British long jumper is planning to [freeze his sperm](http://standardissuemagazine.com/voices/im-not-flying-rio/) before traveling to the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro over fears that the Zika virus could be [sexually transmitted](http://time.com/4352242/zika-safe-sex-guidelines/). Greg Rutherford’s partner Susie Verrill announced the news in [_Standard Issue_](http://standardissuemagazine.com/voices/im-not-flying-rio/), writing that she and their child would be staying behind for the games. “We’ve also made the decision to have Greg’s sperm frozen,” she wrote. “We’d love to have more children and with research in its infancy, I wouldn’t want to put myself in a situation which could have been prevented.” Zika in pregnant women has been linked to birth defects including microcephaly, in which the infant is born with an abnormally small head. “We’re not ones to worry unnecessarily,” she wrote, “but after [more than 100 medical expert](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/zika-fears-prompt-125-public-health-experts-call/story?id=39426429)s stressed the Games should be moved to prevent the disease from spreading, this was a huge factor in us choosing to stay put.” Rutherford won a gold medal in 2012 at the London Olympics. Olympians who will be skipping the games this year over Zika concerns include cyclist Tejay van Garderen and golfers Vijay Singh and Marc Leishman, the [BBC](http://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/36476645) reports. _Today_ anchor [Savannah Guthrie ](http://time.com/4359685/savannah-guthrie-rio-olympics-zika/)will also skip the event this year as she is pregnant. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4361101/british-olympian-freezing-his-sperm-before-rio-over-zika-fears/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4361101/british-olympian-freezing-his-sperm-before-rio-over-zika-fears/"},"headline":"British Olympian Freezing His Sperm Before Rio Over Zika Fears","datePublished":"2016-06-08T12:51:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:27:47.960Z","description":"Greg Rutherford won a gold medal in 2012","url":"https://time.com/4361101/british-olympian-freezing-his-sperm-before-rio-over-zika-fears/","keywords":["Zika","Summer Olympics","2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2405cc774f0eb9b1/698896ec0a4a2267d29c9ff6/greg-rutherford-zika-sperm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2405cc774f0eb9b1/698896ec0a4a2267d29c9ff6/greg-rutherford-zika-sperm.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FILES-OLY-2016-HEALTH-ZIKA-GBR-RUTHERFORD","caption":"Greg Rutherford competing in the men's long jumps event during the Diamond League Athletics Weltklasse meeting in Zurich, Sept. 3, 2015.","creditText":"Michael Buholzer—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/zika/","name":"Zika"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4361101/british-olympian-freezing-his-sperm-before-rio-over-zika-fears/","name":"British Olympian Freezing His Sperm Before Rio Over Zika Fears"}}]}] ```