The Beijing Olympics will open Friday with out a number of athletes and a minimum of one International Olympic Committee member who’ve examined constructive for the coronavirus within the remaining days earlier than the Games.
The athletes come from quite a lot of sports activities and a minimum of a half-dozen international locations, and embrace a minimum of two American medal contenders.
Elana Meyers Taylor, a three-time Olympic medalist and probably the most adorned American bobsledders in historical past, mentioned Tuesday that she had examined constructive for the coronavirus shortly after arriving in Beijing for the Winter Olympics. Meyers Taylor, 37, who revealed her constructive take a look at in a publish on Instagram, should return two unfavorable take a look at outcomes to be launched and to compete.
Olympic gold medal hopeful Elana Meyers Taylor (@eamslider24) reveals what life in COVID isolation is like pic.twitter.com/kLb7J6kXRL
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) February 2, 2022
She is a minimum of the second US bobsledder affected in latest days. Josh Williamson, a member of the lads’s two-man and four-man sleds, examined constructive final week, a part of what has been reported to be a bigger outbreak involving coaches and others near the workforce. “This has not been an easy pill to swallow,” Williamson wrote of lacking the possibility to accompany his teammates to China.
The IOC member who examined constructive, Emma Terho of Finland, introduced her outcome on Instagram and mentioned she would proceed her work remotely whereas in isolation. Terho serves as chair of the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission.
Not all of those that have examined constructive however who’re nonetheless feeling effectively are sure to overlook out on their Olympic moments, nonetheless. Meyers Taylor, for instance, may benefit from a schedule that will not see her occasions begin till later within the Games.
Among the newest instances:
— Marita Kramer, an Austrian ski jumper who was anticipated to contend for a gold medal on the Beijing Games, won’t compete due to a lingering coronavirus an infection. “No words, no feelings, just emptiness,” Kramer wrote on Instagram. “Is the world really this unfair?” Kramer, 20, examined constructive Saturday and had hoped that the an infection would ebb in time for her to compete this week. But the Austrian Ski Federation mentioned Kramer had recorded one other constructive take a look at after returning dwelling and wouldn’t be capable of clear China’s stringent protocols in time.
Marita Kramer
— The Russian skeleton racer Nikita Tregubov, who gained a silver medal on the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, introduced on Instagram that he had examined constructive and wouldn’t journey to Beijing. He and his teammate Vladislav Semenov might be changed on the workforce, the president of the Russian bobsled federation advised the state information company Tass.
— An outbreak on Norway’s highly effective cross-country ski groups grew to incorporate Heidi Weng, a nine-time world medalist, and her teammate Anne Kjersti Kalva. Earlier, a coach on the lads’s workforce examined constructive, briefly sending that total squad into isolation as shut contacts.
— A sequence of pretournament positives left the Czech males’s hockey workforce struggling to search out sufficient gamers to observe final weekend, their coach mentioned, and the Swiss girls’s workforce flew to Beijing with out a minimum of two gamers, Alina Müller and Sinja Leemann. The coaches of each groups mentioned they remained hopeful that their gamers can be cleared in time to journey and to compete. The girls’s event begins Thursday; the lads do not play till subsequent Wednesday.
— Russia’s bobsled workforce arrived in Beijing with half of its four-man squad after Alexei Pushkarev and Vasily Kondratenko recorded constructive assessments at a coaching camp in Sochi on the eve of their workforce’s departure. The head coach of the Russian workforce, Danil Chaban, mentioned neither man would get replaced, within the hope that they might be cleared in time for the bobsled competitors, which begins Feb. 13.
—- Denmark’s males’s hockey workforce held its first pre-Olympic observe Wednesday with out the six gamers who examined constructive for COVID-19 upon arriving in China, The Associated Press reported. The Danish Olympic federation introduced that Matthias Asperup and Nick Olesen, each forwards, had examined constructive and went into isolation. Four different gamers additionally missed observe after testing constructive, however the workforce hoped to get the gamers out of isolation within the coming days.
(This article initially appeared in The New York Times.)
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
