It’s no longer just times, distances or elegance that count. And the excitement of Olympic competition is sizzling even before the Games begin. The most important arena is now the Corona test laboratory, the part of the referee is taken over by the automatic measuring system, the result of the game is then on the mobile phone display. And just as winter sports are exposed to coincidences in wind and weather, athletes in the discipline of staying clean are now also hit randomly and unprepared. Positive? – Out.
After all, the virus is fair, it makes no difference between a lower ranked and a World Cup leader. So it happened on Wednesday in Beijing the German figure skater Nolan Seegert, who will miss the team event on Friday, and before that in Europe the currently world’s best ski jumper Marita Kramer. The Austrian has strong nerves, she always jumps off safely as the last one on the start list and leads the world rankings by what feels like a mile. But now the Olympics are canceled for her after she tested positive in Willingen after winning the World Cup.
Kramer would have taken part in the Olympic individual competition next Saturday and then in the mixed competition. Now her case is the first example that this Olympic edition could later be stamped with the star games. Because unlike other quarantine cases, Kramer was one of the so-called “absolute” gold favorites. Whoever wins now, whatever the composition of the podium – Kramer’s shadow will hang over the results like the shadows of the corona-excluded top athletes from other disciplines and possibly be noted in the sports books with an asterisk. The text to the asterisk: part of the world elite was missing.
The world’s best cross-country skiers from Norway got caught in a corona wave
This could have been avoided by postponing these games, but this was discarded at the turn of the year. It’s too late for that now, even if the topic of canceling the games from the Olympic bubble emerged on Wednesday. Brian McCloskey, head of the Medical Expert Committee, said a stop was not yet considered. However, it could possibly happen “if several cases are related within the bubble”. So it not only depends on a dense overall bubble, but also on the imaginary individual bubble of each participant, on the conscientious behavior of all those admitted.
Corona positive in time: Elana Meyers-Taylor (left) could still take part in her competitions at the Winter Games despite the virus infection if she can test herself free.
(Photo: Eibner/Memmler/Imago)
Marita Kramer, who now has to stay at home, says she has followed all safety measures and cannot understand the path of infection. Kramer’s corona-positive teammate Jacqueline Seifriedsberger and other favorites who are now missing at least the first part of their Beijing program have a similar experience: Some of Norway’s best, such as ski jumper Daniel Andre Tande, also the cross-country skiers, who are once again highly regarded.
Their potential estimate of up to 44 medals, 21 of which were gold, could have been premature. Because the Norwegian team was probably caught in a small local corona wave at the training camp in South Tyrol last week. First it got the co-favorite Heidi Weng, also a teammate, then also Olympic champion Simen Hegstad Krüger. It was initially unclear whether Weng still had enough time to test himself, Krüger will definitely miss the skiathlon he won at the games four years ago.
Keeping shape and pumping milk: US bobsleigh pilot Meyers-Taylor also has mental stress
There are definitely worse things that could happen to a 20-year-old Olympic skier like Kramer who has been slowed down, such as serious injuries. But that’s not how top athletes think, they focus on the one big opportunity ahead, and when it just slips away, only bitterness rings through. “All my chances burst in one day,” ski jumper Kramer wrote on Instagram, and not without a cynical undertone: “For everyone who is still chasing their dreams, stay tuned! Having this opportunity is not a matter of course.”
In addition to winners and unlucky people in this Olympic corona lottery, there are also those who stand in between. They may be positive, but timely-positive. For example, world-class bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor. She had won silver at the games in Sochi and Pyeongchang, was now also tested for Corona at the airport and admitted to the quarantine hotel. There she can now think again and again about whether she was lucky or unlucky.
Lucky because her competitions are only in the second week and she can probably test herself before then. Bad luck, because as a pilot and co-pusher in a two-man bobsleigh, she practices a high-speed sport and shouldn’t lose any muscle strength during the quarantine. And finally also because her situation of being alone in the room is particularly difficult to bear. Meyers Taylor is a mother, she has her family with her, and so that they don’t infect each other, Nico, her baby who is still being breastfed, lives on the floor below with her father. On top of that, the mother is pumping milk and working out to stay fit, which doesn’t change anything that’s worst for her right now, Meyers Taylor said in the Washington Post: “Being separated from Nico.”
Like many of the best Olympic athletes, Meyers Taylor is in good form, leading, albeit narrowly, in the current world rankings. She will leave the hotel after the quarantine is over and then set about fulfilling her dream of an Olympic medal. Well, that’s not so sure. Or what advice did the ski jumper Marita Kramer give to all the favorites about the medal prospects at these games after her dream had burst? “Stay tuned! Having this chance doesn’t come naturally.”