Weeks of isolation, repeated stints in quarantine and substandard meals — these are conditions some Olympic athletes have roped into Beijing’s strict Covid-19 management system, say they are struggling, and some are pushing back.
Finnish ice hockey head coach Jukka Jalonen on Sunday accused China of “disrespecting human rights” for keeping its star player Marko Antilac more than two weeks in isolation, leaving the athlete, who tested positive for the virus, out of action during the first weekend of the Beijing Winter Games.
“We know that he is completely healthy and ready to leave and so we think that for some reason China will not respect his human rights and that is not a great situation,” Jalonen told reporters on Sunday, adding that according to his team doctor Anttila was no longer contagious after testing positive 18 days earlier.
Beijing pushes back: spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhao Lijian stressed controls put in place by the organizing committee for the Games in Beijing were intended “to minimize the risk of infection and to ensure that the Games run safely and smoothly as planned”, while preserving the health of everyone involved and in the host city.
The hockey star is one of 159 athletes or team officials who tested positive for Covid-19 in Beijing on Tuesday morning local time. In total, some 393 Olympics-related staff and other stakeholders received that result, picked up on arrival screenings and daily tests – a key pillar of the Beijing Olympic bubble.
Rules a shock to some: For athletes from parts of the world who are beginning to change their approach to “living with the virus” after large parts of their populations have received vaccines, the Chinese rules can seem shocking.
And for some, the virus and its controls meant giving up Olympic dreams.
Polish short track speed skater Natalia Maliszewska missed her first competitive event as she was placed back into solitude within hours of her first release.
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