China accused of not respecting player’s human rights over Covid isolation protocols: ‘Not getting good food’

Several athletes in quarantine shared their distress on social media

Athletes participating at the Winter Olympics who tested positive for Covid-19 have accused host nation China of giving them poor quarantine conditions that allegedly violate their human rights.

Jukka Jalonen, Finland’s head coach, said Marko Anttila, a ninth-round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2004 NHL draft, was under mental stress and “not getting good food”.

“We know that he’s fully healthy and ready to go and that’s why we think that China, for some reason, they won’t respect his human rights and that’s not a great situation,” the head coach alleged on Sunday over a zoom call with the press.

Although Mr Anttila tested positive 18 days ago and was no longer infectious, authorities continued to keep him in the isolation.

Over 350 participants, including dozens of athletes, tested positive on arrival since 23 January and were only allowed to leave the hotels once they tested negative in two RT-PCR tests taken 24 hours apart.

Under China’s “zero Covid” policy, everyone in the Olympic bubble is required to take daily RT-PCR tests.

Several athletes have now gone public with their criticism against the allegedly poor state of quarantine hotels along with discrepancies in allotting isolation facilities.

Some Covid positive athletes were reportedly forced into quarantine hotels, while teammates in similar situations were allowed to isolate themselves within the Olympic village.

Last week, Russian biathlon competitor Valeria Vasnetsova took to Instagram to post images of poor quality food served to her in one of Beijing’s “quarantine hotels”.

“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,” she wrote sharing a picture of a tray of food, which included plain pasta, an orange-coloured sauce, charred meat on a bone and a few potatoes.

Ms Vasnetsova said she mostly survived on a few pieces of pasta because it was “impossible” to eat the rest. "But today I ate all the fat they serve instead of meat because I was very hungry," she said, adding that her “bones are already sticking out”.

German delegation head Dirk Schimmelpfennig slammed the “unreasonable” living conditions after Eric Frenzel, a three-time gold medalist in Nordic combined, tested positive. They demanded more hygienic rooms and regular food deliveries so that athletes remain fit to compete.

With mounting pressure on the organisers, Zhao Weidong, spokesperson for the Beijing Games, said: “We are in a process of addressing these problems.”

Following a tearful post on social media, Belgian skeleton racer Kim Meylemans was brought back from a quarantine hotel to isolation in the athletes’ village.

(With inputs from Reuters)