Weeks-long isolation, repeat stints in quarantine and sub-par meals — these are conditions that some Olympic athletes snared in Beijing’s stringent system for controlling Covid-19 say they are contending with, and some are pushing back.
Finnish ice hockey head coach Jukka Jalonen on Sunday accused China of “not respecting human rights” for keeping his star player Marko Anttila in isolation for more than two weeks, leaving the athlete, who tested positive for the virus, out of commission into the first weekend of the Beijing Winter Games.
“We know that he’s fully healthy and ready to go and that’s why we think that China, for some reason, won’t respect his human rights and that’s not a great situation,” Jalonen told reporters Sunday, adding that according to his team doctor, Anttila was no longer infectious after first testing positive 18 days earlier.
Beijing pushes back: Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian stressed controls put in place by the organizing committee for the Beijing Games were meant “to reduce the risk of infection as much as possible, and ensure the safe and smooth running of the Games as scheduled,” while safeguarding the health of all those involved and in the host city.
The hockey star is one of 159 athletes or team officials who have tested positive for Covid-19 in Beijing as of Tuesday morning local time. Overall, some 393 Olympics-related personnel and other stakeholders have received that result, picked up in arrival screenings and daily tests — a key pillar of Beijing’s Olympic’s bubble.
Rules a shock for some: For athletes coming from parts of the world that have begun to shift their approaches to “live with the virus” after large portions of their populations received vaccines, China’s rules can seem jarring.
And for some, the virus and its controls have meant giving up Olympic dreams.
Polish short track speed skater Natalia Maliszewska missed her first competitive event due to being placed back in isolation within hours of her initial release.
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