Athletes At China Olympics Describe Hellish Conditions While In COVID Quarantine
I’m not watching the Olympics and find it hard to care about what these athletes are going through, given that they voluntarily chose to go to China—a country known for its internment camps, torture, genocide, and countless other horrific human rights violations—during a global pandemic, but here’s the unsurprising situation for those who’ve had to go into quarantine after testing positive for COVID:
Dozens of athletes thrown into virus isolation at China’s zero-Covid Winter Olympics have laid bare their misery – describing ‘crying like crazy’ after being hauled out of bed at 3am before being fed miserable food in rooms too small for exercise.
Beijing is attempting to hold a virus-free event in the midst of a pandemic, cutting off competitors and their teams in a bubble where tests must be taken every day, with anyone who tests positive dragged off to isolation.
But conditions in isolation are reportedly dire. Valeria Vasnetsova, a Russian biathlete, claims she was served the same inedible meal three times a day for five days in a row – and that it left her so emaciated that her ‘bones [were] sticking out’.
Natalia Maliszewska, a Polish speed skater, described being repeatedly moved into and out of quarantine over successive days due to conflicting Covid test results, an experience she described as a ‘trauma’ that left her ‘crying and crying’.
During one ‘night of horror’ she said officials dragged her out of bed at 3am in order to take her back to the athlete’s village after ruling she was Covid-free – only to later say they made a mistake before taking her back into solitary.
‘I was sitting in the ambulance. It was 3am. I was crying like crazy because I didn’t know what was going on. I did not feel safe at all,’ the 26-year-old said.
There are currently 387 people from the athletes’ bubble in Covid isolation in China, though this also includes members of their teams and press. The exact number of competitors in solitary is not clear, but is thought to be in the dozens.
Vasnetsova took to Instagram to post an image of food she says was served to her three times a day for five days.
The image shows a portion of plain pasta, some kind of grilled meat on the bone, an unidentifiable orange sauce, some potatoes, and what appears to be plain chicken.
Other than the potatoes, which appear to have been fried, no vegetables are included on the plate.
In a message alongside the since-deleted post, she wrote: ‘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.’
Go home?
