The 31-year-old Olympic gold medalist described in detail his battle with the coronavirus.

“I have been struggling with Covid-19 for 14 days today. [It’s] By far the worst virus I have ever endured despite being a healthy individual with strong lungs(no smoking/sport), living a healthy lifestyle and being young (least at risk demographic),” said the swimmer who claimed gold in the men’s 100m breaststroke at the 2012 London Olympics.

Van der Burgh retired from swimming at the end of 2018, but was in peak physical condition at the time of his infection.

“Although the most severe symptoms (extreme fever) have eased, I am still struggling with serious fatigue and a residual cough that I can’t shake. Any physical activity like walking leaves me exhausted for hours.”

With the Tokyo Olympics still scheduled to go ahead in July, Van der Burgh empathised with athletes who had no option to keep training in the midst of the pandemic.

“The loss in body conditioning has been immense and [I] can only feel for the athletes that contract Covid-19 as they will suffer a great loss of current conditioning through the last training cycle. Infection closer to competition being the worst.

“Athletes will continue to train as there is no clarification on the summer Games and thus are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk - and those that do contract will try rush back to training most likely enhancing/extending the damage/recovery time.

“Please, look after yourself everyone! Health comes first - Covid-19 is no joke!”

- ANA