BEIJING, China — Japanese snowboarder Rina Yoshika was evacuated by ambulance after a heavy fall in training for the Beijing Olympics on Thursday and will therefore not be able to compete in the big air (big jump) and slopestyle events, announced a representative of the Japanese team.
Yoshika crashed after landing from a jump on the slopestyle slope at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou.
According to the Japanese Olympic Committee, the 22-year-old sportswoman suffers from a spinal injury, but it will not lead to paralysis.
She will therefore not participate in the slopestyle or big air (big jump) events of the Games as initially planned and will return to Japan once she receives the appropriate medical treatment, it was added.
The Beijing Olympics, which officially start on Friday, are taking place in one of the driest regions of China and rely almost entirely on artificial snow.
American snowboarder Jamie Anderson, a two-time Olympic champion, admitted she was scared while training on the slopestyle course, saying the surface was extremely hard.
“I believe the majority of the surface is artificial, so it’s not ideal,” Anderson said, adding, “You should definitely not fall on it.”
The women’s slopestyle competition begins on Saturday with qualifying.
The hell of isolation
Her tears caused social networks and sports bodies to react: Belgian Kim Meylemans, placed in solitary confinement after a positive test for COVID-19 on her arrival in Beijing, believes she has experienced “hell” because of the protocol drastic health of the 2022 Olympics.
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Meylemans, who must participate in the women’s skeleton event, ended up integrating the night of Wednesday to Thursday at the Olympic village of Yanqing, one of the three Olympic competition sites which kick off on Friday.
“At 11:25 p.m. last night there was a knock on my door, I was escorted to the Olympic Village, I’m still in solitary confinement, but at least I’m in the Olympic Village and I’m in a better position to m ‘train,’” she said.
The day before, she had expressed her distress on her Instagram account where in tears, she had explained that she “had to stay seven days in this (quarantine hotel), without any outside contact, without being sure of being able to go to the Village. Olympic”.
“It’s very hard for me, I’m not sure I can manage the 14 days of the Olympics while being in solitary confinement,” she explained then.
Meylemans, who had contracted COVID-19 in early January, explained in another message titled “hell” that he carried out twelve PCR tests, all negative, before leaving for China. But she was declared positive on her arrival in Beijing and placed in solitary confinement for three days.
Despite three consecutive negative tests, she remained in solitary confinement, prompting her to post her video which has been viewed nearly 20,000 times.
The health protocol for the 2022 Olympics provides that in the event of a positive test on arrival, an athlete will be transported to a hotel for isolation and may leave after two negative PCR tests, separated by at least 24 hours.
Rob Koehler, director of Global Athlete, an association that defends the rights of athletes, was then moved by her fate: “She should never have experienced this, the IOC neglects the rights of athletes”.
The Belgian Olympic Committee (COIB) also regretted the treatment of its representative, whose competition begins on February 11.
“We understand that the COVID measures are necessary to preserve the safety and health of participants in the Olympic Games, but we believe that in this approach, the athlete must remain central,” said the COIB.
Without commenting on this specific case, the president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach acknowledged in the evening “the extremely difficult mental situation” of the athletes who arrived in China after having gone through qualifications and logistical adventures, but who remain under the threat of contamination likely to “destroy, or at least compromise (their) Olympic dream”.
Romance
Separated by the World Cup circuits for a large part of the winter, the star couple of alpine skiing, the American Mikaela Shiffrin and the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, were happy to be on the same site for two weeks.
“Everyone says to us, ‘It’s great you have to spend time together’, but it’s more complicated than that because we have to be careful with the restrictions linked to COVID. We can see each other, but we can’t touch or find each other too often,” explained Kilde, who is delighted to find his partner for dinner in the restaurant in the Olympic Village.
“She sends me videos every day, I send her some too”. Still, Kilde is hoping for something a “little bit special” for Valentine’s Day on February 14.
Tofu and all you need
In addition to issues related to the health situation and the “closed loop”, French snowboarder Chloé Trespeuch had another concern in mind when she arrived in China: food. A vegetarian, she was reassured by her first days at the Olympic Village in Zhangjiakou.
“It’s always a bit of a concern to really have everything I need. Especially since we have been there for a long time and we know how important food is for recovery and performance, ”she explained at a press conference on Thursday.
“It’s well suited. There is tofu, eggs… Everything you need, ”she added, even if she had brought with her small complements from France.
Norway hit by COVID
Jarl Magnus Riiber of Norway, a big favorite in the Nordic combined events of the 2022 Olympics, has tested positive for COVID-19 in Beijing, while another great Norwegian medal chance, biathlete Johannes Boe, is considered to be a contact case, the Norwegian Olympic Committee announced on Thursday.
“Nordic combined specialist Jarl Magnus Riiber has tested positive for COVID-19. The control test also came out positive, ”explained the Norwegian delegation in a press release.
Norwegian Nordic Combined manager Ivar Stuan said Riiber “feels perfectly healthy”.
Riiber, 24, is currently in solitary confinement in a hotel room in Zhangjiakou, the site about 180 kilometers northwest of Beijing that hosts Nordic combined events, a sport that combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing. .
The first Nordic combined event is scheduled for February 9. To be able to participate, Riiber must, like any COVID-19 positive athlete present in Beijing, remain isolated until he produces two negative PCR tests, separated by at least 24 hours.
Riiber had been defined as a contact case after Estonian Kristjan Ilves, who traveled with the Norwegian delegation, also tested positive for COVID on Wednesday.
The Norwegian, double world champion on normal springboard (2019 and 2021) and 2018 Olympic team vice-champion, has been untouchable for two and a half years in the World Cup.
According to the Norwegian Olympic Committee, six athletes are considered contact cases: Johannes Thingnes Boe (biathlon), Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold (biathlon), Mons Roeiseland (snowboard), Johanne Killi (freestyle skiing), Anna Odine Stroem (ski jumping) and Joergen Graabak (Nordic combined).
Boe is the leader of the Norwegian biathlon team, a world reference in the discipline. He has won the last three editions of the World Cup and has 12 world titles and three Olympic medals, including one gold (Individual, 2018).
As he is a contact case, he is placed in solitary confinement in a single room, but can continue to train, alone, and participate in competitions. However, the case of participation in a relay, the first event of the 2022 Olympics being a mixed relay on Saturday, during which there is physical contact when changing the torchbearer, is not specified.
“At the moment he is in quarantine, can train and compete. The composition of the relay is the same and everyone prepares normally. It’s just a little more boring socially, because he has to be in a hotel room most of the time, ”explained his brother Tarjei Boe, in a press conference.
Her compatriot Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, triple world relay champion, is in the same situation, but is not aligned for the mixed relay.
The Norwegian cross-country ski team has also faced COVID cases during its preparation: Simen Krüger, 2018 Olympic skiathlon champion, will not be able to participate in the 2022 Olympics skiathlon on Sunday after testing positive for COVID -19.
With Chen, without Hanyu
Nathan Chen will skate the men’s short program of the figure skating team event for the United States on Friday, but not reigning two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu for Japan, according to the first team rosters released Thursday evening.
Chen, triple reigning world champion and contender for individual Olympic gold, will face him against the Japanese Shoma Uno, outgoing Olympic vice-champion and Japanese vice-champion at the end of December.
Chasing a third straight Olympic title, a feat not achieved in nearly a century, Hanyu, who injured his right ankle last fall, has only competed in one competition – the World Championships. Japan he has won – so far this season.
The rhythmic dance and the short couples program of the team event are also scheduled from Friday. Russia, big favorite for gold, aligns both in ice dance and in pairs the reigning world and European champions, respectively Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov, and Anastasia Mishina and Aleksandr Galliamov.
The women’s short and men’s free programs are scheduled on Sunday. And the free program couples and ladies, and the free dance on Monday.
The selections, made closer to each day of competition, can be modified for the free programs, within the limit of a maximum of two changes per team. Which means that it is possible, for example, that Hanyu is retained for the free, and Chen not.
The team event, contested for the third time at the Olympic Games, is the first figure skating event on the program for the Beijing fortnight. It takes place over three days and opposes ten national teams. All skate four short programs, in the men’s, women’s, pairs and ice dance categories, but only the top five qualify for the free programs.
Six cases of COVID among Germans
Six people in the German delegation for the 2022 Olympics tested positive for COVID-19 upon their arrival in Beijing on Thursday, the German Olympic Committee (DOSB) announced without specifying whether among them were athletes.
All those infected are asymptomatic and have been separated from the rest of the delegation, he added, adding that they had to undergo new PCR tests to confirm their contamination.
The other 78 members of the German delegation who were traveling on Thursday are all negative, according to the same source.
The German Olympic Committee said only that the cases concerned three sports disciplines but it did not specify which sport it was, or whether athletes or coaches were affected.
On Wednesday, German figure skater Nolan Seegert tested positive, being the first infected athlete in the German delegation for these Olympic Games, the opening ceremony of which will take place on Friday.
The German delegation for these Olympics has 403 members, including 149 athletes.
Earthquake
According to the National Seismological Service, a slight tremor of magnitude 2.7 was felt Thursday at 1:55 a.m. in Beijing, with its epicenter in the Chaoyang district, in the east of the capital.
The depth was estimated at 21 km. Beijing was hit in 1976 by a very strong earthquake, which devastated the city of Tangshan, about 200 km east of the capital. The official toll had reported about 250,000 deaths, which would make it one of the deadliest earthquakes in human history. Some experts estimate that the total toll could have been three times higher.
