Health experts are increasingly acknowledging that cloth masks do little to prevent Covid transmission.
College-wrestling fans who tuned in to Monday’s dual meet between the University of Michigan and Arizona State University witnessed a competition that was highly modified due to Covid-19.
And many were surprised to see the ASU wrestlers competing in masks.
There are few sports where it would appear wearing a mask while competing would be more futile than wrestling. Photos from the event show the masks regularly falling below the ASU wrestlers’ noses as they grappled. In online forums, fans said masking the wrestlers was “moronic” and “stupid,” and questioned if the masks were a potential choking hazard.
The event occurred as health experts increasingly are acknowledging that cloth masks do little to prevent the transmission of the highly contagious, airborne Omicron variant.
In an email to National Review, a spokesman for ASU athletics said their wrestlers wore masks “based upon advice from Arizona State University medical staff.”
ASU did not answer specific questions about the school’s masking requirements, if the wrestlers will be required to compete in masks going forward, or if athletes in other sports will have to be masked. “Time, place and conditions govern what we do,” Jay Thorne, an ASU athletics spokesman, wrote in an email. “One size does not fit all and we adjust to the circumstances presented.”
The dual meet between two of the top college-wrestling teams in the country, which took place in Austin, Texas, was threatened to be canceled because of “recent Covid-19 developments” within the ASU wrestling program. Instead, the dual was adjusted and featured matches in only four weight classes instead of ten. The teams split the four matches, each winning two.
ASU has since canceled its weekend duel against Iowa State University.
Wearing masks while wrestling became a common Covid-mitigation measure at the high-school level in many states last year, though it was rare sight at the highest college levels. The American Academy of Pediatrics specifically warns against masking youth wrestlers “unless an adult coach or official is closely monitoring” to ensure the athletes don’t choke on the masks.
Even with the availability of vaccines, New York City and some states, including Maine and Delaware, still are requiring wrestlers to wear masks while competing. A report last month by the New York Times found that New York City’s Covid restrictions — including a policy prohibiting wrestlers from participating in tournaments where unvaccinated athletes are allowed to compete — seem to have reduced participation in the sport.
Nationwide, some Covid outbreaks have been liked to wrestling tournaments over the last two years. Hundreds of cases were linked to tournaments in Washington State in early December.
Dr. Lucy McBride, a Harvard-trained physician and practicing Washington D.C. internist, told National Review that the limited benefits of wearing a cloth mask while competing in a high-intensity sport like wrestling need to be weighed against the downsides, including possibly making it harder for the athletes to breathe and just generally being annoying.
“With something that’s that vigorous, and where you’re breathing heavily, it’s not clear to me how much a cloth mask is doing,” she said.
Even cloth masks likely have some benefit, she said, including limiting droplet transmission. But McBride said it would be more impactful to ensure the student athletes are vaccinated and tested before competitions to ensure they are virus-free.
“Maybe it’s better than nothing,” McBride said of wearing masks while competing. “There’s always a tradeoff here. We have to understand that masks work, but their relative utility is low in comparison to vaccination and keeping people with known Covid out of the arena.”