The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) is working with the IOC and the organizing committee to improve the quarantine conditions for its three athletes who have tested positive.
The isolation room of the three-time Olympic champion Eric Frenzel was “unreasonable,” said Chef de Mission Dirk Schimmelpfennig on Saturday. The Nordic combined athlete was infected with the corona virus before the start of the Winter Games in Beijing.
Frenzel’s room is too small to keep fit for a possible return to competition in the second week of the Olympics. According to Schimmelpfennig, the cleanliness also left a lot to be desired. The DOSB had already requested improvements from the IOC after the test competitions for bobsleigh pilots and tobogganists last year, which were obviously only partially implemented.
Like teammate Terence Weber, who is isolating in his room at the team hotel, and figure skater Nolan Seegert, Frenzel is symptom-free. Both combined athletes will miss the first competition on the normal hill on Wednesday. “Health definitely comes before a gold medal, I have to protect it,” said team doctor Stefan Pecher.
Seegert, who was the first German athlete caught in Beijing, has been waiting for better equipment in isolation for days. He has meanwhile received stronger WiFi, and a solution for “a larger room” with training equipment is in the offing, said Schimmelpfennig.
All athletes who test positive need two negative tests within 24 hours or three tests with a CT value higher than 35 in order to be able to leave the quarantine. Whether they then return to the competitions is decided in consultation with the doctors. The following applies: “Safety first,” said DOSB doctor Bernd Wolfarth: “When the quarantine is formally over, they are clinically examined, and then we weigh up what the return-to-play protocol looks like on a case-by-case basis.”