Medical staff wearing personal protective clothing work at the National Indoor Stadium during a hockey training session on Feb. 3 in Beijing. Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images
An International Olympic Committee official vowed on Sunday to improve the living conditions in quarantine hotels at the Beijing Winter Olympics following multiple complaints, the Washington Post reported.
Why it matters: Olympians quarantining at the hotels after testing positive for COVID-19 have complained of not getting enough food, poor quality food and "unreasonable" living conditions.
- Athletes and their teams have also criticized the lack of transparency and inconsistent rules regarding who must stay at the quarantine hotels.
What they're saying: “We have found ourselves once in a situation where we’re not necessarily meeting the conditions that we expected,” Christian Dubi, an IOC executive director, said at a briefing Sunday, per the Post.
- “It is addressed, and it’s very unfortunate that it affected an athlete. It’s been addressed," he added.
The big picture: Dirk Schimmelpfennig, the German delegation head, called the conditions at the quarantine hotels "unacceptable" on Saturday, demanding athletes receive better food, a working internet connection and bigger and cleaner rooms, among other requests, per Reuters.
- "We have succeeded since yesterday in achieving a marked improvement in conditions for the athletes," Schimmelpfennig told reporters on Sunday, per Reuters.
But, but, but: The coach of Finland's ice hockey team accused Chinese officials on Sunday of not respecting a quarantining athlete's human rights, Reuters reported.
- Coach Jukka Jalonen said hockey player Marko Anttila was not getting sufficient food and was under great amounts of mental stress.
- "We know that he's fully healthy and ready to go and that's why we think that China, for some reason, they won't respect his human rights and that's not a great situation," Jalonen told reporters over a zoom call Sunday, per Reuters.
- Anttila has been kept in COVID-19 isolation after testing positive for the virus 18 days ago, despite no longer being infectious, per Reuters.
Go deeper: