A worker performs a COVID-19 test at the 2022 Winter Olympics, on Feb. 2, 2022 in Beijing. Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press
BEIJING — More than 30 athletes at the Beijing Olympics are in isolation facilities after testing positive for the coronavirus, organizers said Tuesday. The average stay in isolation is seven days.
“We will allow as many people out of isolation as we can, but only as many as we can do safely,” said Brian McCloskey, chairman of the expert medical panel for the Beijing Games. He said 50 athletes have been discharged and the vast majority of athletes in isolation are well and do not require any medical treatment.
The disclosure that 32 athletes are in isolation facilities came after complaints by athletes and teams about inedible food, dirty rooms and a lack of training equipment and internet access. Organizers have acknowledged that isolation is already a difficult situation for athletes – who face the possibility of missing competitions after years of training – and said they were working to quickly address any problems.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Finland’s players wore masks in their women’s hockey game Tuesday night, becoming the second consecutive team to do so while facing the Russians.
The game Monday between the Russians and Canadians was delayed because of virus concerns. The Russian COVID-19 testing results from earlier in the day were not yet available by game time, and Russian players were testing positive before and after the team’s loss to the United States on Saturday.
The Canadians and Russians agreed to start the game in masks. The Russians took off theirs for the start of the third period, while the Canadians finished their 6-1 win with masks on.
Later, Coach Evgeny Bobariko told state news agency RIA Novosti that Polina Bolgareva – who played against Canada – tested positive.
Finland beat Russia 5-0.
LUGE: Natalie Geisenberger is the first three-time Olympic champion in women’s luge.
The German great won the gold medal at the Beijing Games, her third consecutive title. Germany’s Anna Berreiter was second and Tatiana Ivanova of the Russian Olympic Committee was third.
Berreiter was a half-second back of Geisenberger. Ivanova was a full second back. In luge, those time gaps are massive.
SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING: Angered by the disqualifications of two of its short track speedskaters at the Beijing Games, South Korea filed complaints with the International Skating Union and International Olympic Committee on Tuesday.
World record holder Hwang Daeheon and Lee Juneseo were disqualified in the semifinals of the men’s 1,000 meters a night earlier.
Yoon Hong Geun, chef de mission for South Korea, said an appeal also will be filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“We hope that such things will never ever happen again in the future,” Yoon said at a news conference.
Immediately after the semifinals, the Koreans filed a protest with the referee asking for the reason why Hwang and Lee were DQ’d. The complaint was then filed to the ISU.
ALPINE SKIING: Defending champion Matthias Mayer of Austria won the men’s super-G, capturing a third Olympic gold medal.
Ryan Cochran-Siegle of the United States was 0.04 seconds behind in second and World Cup super-G leader Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway was 0.42 behind in third.
Mayer broke Norway’s 16-year grip on the men’s Olympic super-G title when he won in 2018. That was four years after winning the downhill in Sochi.
The 31-year-old Mayer also claimed bronze in the men’s downhill on Monday.
BIATHLON: Quentin Fillon Maillet of France won decisively in the 20-kilometer individual biathlon, adding a gold medal to the silver he won in the mixed relay over the weekend.
He missed two of 20 targets Tuesday and finished the course in 48 minutes, 47.4 seconds. Anton Smolski of Belarus shot clean, hitting all 20 of his targets, but came in 14.8 seconds behind the Frenchman.
Defending individual Olympic champion Johannes Thingnes Boe of Norway also missed two targets and took the bronze medal.
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING: Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway defended his Olympic cross-country sprint title at the Beijing Games, leading the final for the entire race and punching the air when he crossed the finish line.
• Jonna Sundling of Sweden won the race in 3:09.68, finishing 2.88 seconds ahead of teammate Maja Dahlqvist on Tuesday. Jessie Diggins of the United States took bronze, 3.16 seconds behind.
CURLING: Italy won the gold medal in mixed doubles curling, completing a near-perfect Olympics.
The 8-5 win over Norway on Tuesday at the Ice Cube capped a dominant performance for Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini. The Italians were undefeated in the round-robin and then advanced to the gold medal match with an 8-1 victory over Sweden.
Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten will take a silver medal back to Norway four years after claiming bronze in Pyeongchang.
FREESTYLE SKIING: American-born Eileen Gu of China cranked out the first 1620 of her career on her final jump, stunning France’s Tess Ledeux and earning the first of what she hopes will be three gold medals in women’s freestyle big air.
Nicknamed the “Snow Princess,” Gu is a medal favorite in big air, slopestyle and halfpipe. Her first stab at gold came down to the last round.
SNOWBOARDING: Second-seeded Benjamin Karl of Austria held off Tim Mastnak of Slovenia for the gold in the men’s parallel giant slalom.
Russian athlete Vic Wild picked up the bronze as the No. 9 seed in the bracketed field.
• Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic defended her Olympic snowboard parallel giant slalom title with a quick final run on a sun-splashed course.
Four years ago in South Korea, Ledecka became the first competitor to win gold in two different sports at the same Winter Games. She has a chance to accomplish the feat once again in China. The women’s super-G ski race is scheduled for Friday at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center.
SPEEDSKATING: Kjeld Nuis of the Netherlands became the first speedskater since 1994 to successfully defend his Olympic title in the men’s 1,500 meters, edging countryman Thomas Krol at the Beijing Games.
Krol, the reigning world champion, broke the 20-year-old Olympic record in his race. Nuis went even faster in the very next pair, crossing the line with a blistering time of 1 minute, 43.21 seconds.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
