Before the Olympians can compete for places and medals, concern takes center stage. The ones before a positive corona test with transfer to the quarantine hotel. But even the front of cheating is real. The sporting value of the Winter Games in Beijing has been overshadowed.
Receive in space? In the restricted area of the epidemic island of Riems? In an apocalypse movie? Not at all. Pictures just show German athletes arriving in Beijing. They are standing on the airport tarmac, posing in team uniforms with the reception committee of the Winter Olympics, masked beyond recognition. The people who make sure that the corona virus does not harm the city and the event.
“In times of a pandemic, the Olympic spirit also looks a little different,” says one such photo on Team Germany’s Instagram page. Nevertheless, it was nice to have been warmly welcomed. Incidentally, the “warm” can be recognized in the photo by the thumbs up on all sides, smiling is difficult because of the masks, even the eyes of the Chinese helpers are behind a visor.
Things don’t always go “heartily”. The German delegation on Sunday is lucky – all tests are corona negative, they are allowed to move on together. Since January 23, 176 people have had a different experience. On Sunday alone, 28 people entering the Olympic Winter Games tested positive, as well as nine people who are already in the closed Olympic system. Anyone who has been infected with the virus must isolate themselves in a specially prepared hotel. Only after two negative PCR tests are those affected allowed to leave before the end of the ten-day isolation.
Sportschau reporter Claus Lufen caught such treatment. The ARD journalist tested positive upon entry and is now stuck in a 15 square meter room. He recounts how “three hooded figures” picked him up in an ambulance in front of his hotel, he had to get in with all his luggage before the vehicle was disinfected on the outside and drove off 20 minutes into uncertainty. The chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, the Finnish ice hockey player Emma Terho, has also been accommodated in the quarantine hotel.
“It borders on paranoia”
Despite massive measures, all of which apply to those entering the country. Everyone must provide evidence of at least two negative PCR tests within four days before entry. The strict rules ensure that there are many separate bedrooms in Germany. Although the German ski jumpers recently had two World Cups in Titisee-Neustadt and Willingen, Karl Geiger, for example, said that he slept separately from his wife and daughter. The biathletes spent the past week far away from their families in the joint camp in Antholz. Bob national coach René Spies reported to “Spiegel” that he had moved into the guest room of his own house and had only had contact with his family with a mask and a previous quick test. “It borders on paranoia,” he said.
The Ct value is decisive in assessing whether one is positive or negative. It indicates how contagious you are. The higher the value, the lower the infectivity. While in Germany a Ct value of over 30 is sufficient for a negative result, in China you are considered a corona patient with this value. After worldwide criticism, the Olympic organizers have now lowered the limit from 40 to 35. Career paths are decided at the airport in Beijing.
With the arrival of the Germany team, the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” reported that even the airport staff who unloaded the luggage were fully dressed in protective suits. Even the man who drives the baggage trolley is shielded from the freight in his driver’s cab by a plastic panel. The measures are no coincidence, the Chinese state media reports on people who – so it is said – became infected when unloading foreign luggage at the airport. It is clear: the danger for China comes from abroad. From the Olympians, from supervisors, from media people, they endanger the Chinese “zero Covid strategy”.
“Comparison between doping and corona tests is absolutely permissible”
But the airport is far from over. The career path can also become rocky later on. Every day, everyone in the Olympic bubble must complete PCR tests. And even those who have tested negative could be quarantined after a positive sample from a roommate. It can quickly come to an end with your own competition. Some publicly express their concern about arbitrariness.
For example, the German alpine director Wolfgang Maier: “With a PCR test, I can immediately take any sporting opponent out of the race. No one needs to tell me that this is just a pipe dream of mine because you know what it’s about.” The President of the German Snowboard Association, Hanns Michael Hölz, agrees with him in the “Spiegel”: “The comparison between doping and corona tests is absolutely permissible.” It would not be the first attempt at manipulation, in 2014 in Sochi Russia is said to have exchanged contaminated doping samples from its own athletes. The scandal was exposed by the former head of the anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov.
The Winter Olympics will officially open on Friday, and curling and luge will start their competitions on Wednesday. Anyone who is still testing positive now has to watch. The German toboggan team is part of the delegation that tested negative on Sunday. Felix Loch, Natalie Geisenberger and Co. don’t let their spirits spoil. The three-time Olympic champion posted photos on Instagram of a visit to a fast food chain, his “place to be”. The employee there does not wear a protective suit, only gloves, a visor and a mask – and it is also “warm” there. She poses with her arms raised above her head showing a heart.