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Australian Olympic swimmer Madi Wilson hospitalized with Covid in Italy

Wilson, 27, said her vaccination protected those around her and encouraged followers to get the shot: "Please continue to get vaccinated."
Madi Wilson attends the Australian Dolphins Swimming Team Camp ahead of the Tokyo Games on July 13, 2021, in Cairns, Australia.
Madi Wilson at the Australian Dolphins swimming team camp in Cairns, Australia, ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games on July 13. Delly Carr / Swimming Australia via Getty Images

Australian Olympic swimmer Madi Wilson announced that she has tested positive for Covid-19 and is hospitalized in Italy as a precaution because of "underlying chest and lung issues."

Wilson, 27, made the announcement Sunday on Instagram.

Wilson, who competes with the Los Angeles Current team in the International Swimming League, or ISL, wrote that she tested positive even though she is "double vaccinated and took the right precaution set in place through the ISL."

Wilson, who was in Naples, Italy, for an ISL competition, said she would be forced to miss the next match.

"Covid is a serious thing and when it comes it hits very hard," she wrote. "I'd be stupid to say I wasn't scared."

Wilson guessed that she might have been more susceptible to a breakthrough Covid infection after "a crazy few months," including the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, had left her "run down physically and mentally."

She said she hopes to "bounce back in no time."

In an Instagram story Monday, Wilson encouraged people to get vaccinated. She said that although she had tested positive, her vaccination lessened her symptoms and "protected the people around me who I have been close to over this past period of time."

"Please continue to get vaccinated," she said.

Wilson has been awarded multiple medals while swimming for Australia, including gold at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.