ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Sports on University of Michigan’s campus came to a sudden halt Saturday after a handful of athletes tested positive for the COVID B.1.1.7 variant.
Student athletes and staff from sports including tennis, track and field, wrestling, hockey, volleyball and gymnastics all must quarantine for two weeks as suggested by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
“I want to commend the University of Michigan for taking the actions that they did. We we think that those are the right steps to keep people safe,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Track and field and cross country runner Christian Hubaker is part of a movement to get the unaffected teams back to competition now.
“We wanted to see a team-by-team response to this instead of a blanket policy,” Hubaker said.
He started a petition Monday on behalf of the Coalition of Student Athletes and it garnered thousands of signatures in a few hours.
“We were frustrated that we really didn’t have a voice on the matter, and we’re doing all the right things going into that mandate, doing things the right that was still kind of taken from us very abruptly,” Hubaker said.