Olympic teams complain about conditions at quarantine hotels
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Venue staff decked in personal protective equipment walk in the compound of the National Stadium on Feb. 4 in Beijing. Photo: Annice Lyn/Getty Images
Olympic athletes are raising concerns over the conditions in quarantine hotels at the Beijing Winter Olympics, AP reports.
Driving the news: Athletes who have tested positive for COVID-19 at the Games and are isolating in quarantine hotels complain of not enough food, poor quality of food and "unreasonable" living conditions, among other things.
- "My stomach hurts, I’m very pale and I have huge black circles around my eyes. I want all this to end. I cry every day. I’m very tired," Russian biathlon competitor Valeria Vasnetsova wrote on Instagram at one of the quarantine hotels, per AP.
- Vasnetsova said she mostly survived on a few pieces of pasta because it was "impossible" to eat the rest, "but today I ate all the fat they serve instead of meat because I was very hungry."
- She also said that she had lost weight and "my bones are already sticking out."
- Another athlete, Belgian skeleton racer Kim Meylemans, posted a tearful video on her Instagram detailing her treatment in COVID isolation and prompting the International Olympic Committee to step in.
The big picture: The quarantine hotels have also drawn criticism from athletes and their teams for having inconsistent rules and lacking transparency.
- Some athletes who test positive for COVID-19 are required to stay in quarantine hotels without access to their teams, while others are allowed to isolate within the Olympic village, per AP.
- According to the Olympic Playbook, athletes that test positive for COVID during the Games but are asymptomatic are to be transported to a designated hotel for isolation.
- Athletes who test positive for the virus and experience symptoms will be taken to a designated hospital for isolation.
State of play: The conditions of Vasnetsova's quarantine hotel may be looking up, according to Russian biathlon team spokesman Sergei Averyanov, who said that the food appears to be getting better and a stationary bike is set to be delivered soon, per AP.
- "[Vasnetsova] is already smiling, and that’s the main thing," he said.
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