According to the circumstances, they are doing well, said the German team doctor Bernd Wolfahrth. Eric Frenzel and Terence Weber, the two Nordic combined athletes, spent the start of the games in isolation with the big opening show. Their corona tests on Thursday and the follow-up tests on Friday were positive, and the two combined athletes are now experiencing the usual procedure from which the German team had been spared so far. The older of the two, Frenzel, played a leading role at the opening four years ago, he was in the stadium and carried the flag.
So, in a way, the opposite. Frenzel explained his mood immediately after arriving at the isolation hotel via social media: “Not the start I was hoping for here in Beijing! – Covid positive,” he wrote on Instagram. He also added a photo that showed him with an FFP2 mask and a serious look. His competitions don’t start until the middle of the week, which may give him hope that he can go through with his program: Frenzel again, from the hotel: “Then let’s hope for the best to get out of isolation here very soon .”
The mystery that had occupied the observers since Thursday afternoon was also cleared up. Namely who is behind the ominous six German corona cases that initially tested positive. The dissolution followed an already established course. Four other German Olympic participants had initially tested positive on Thursday when they entered the country. These athletes – from the ice hockey team and the skeleton selection – obviously still had residual information about the virus in their bodies from a previous illness, and they tested negative in further tests. Frenzel and Weber, however, do not.
Nordic combined is increasingly coming into focus with the topic of Corona
Further corona cases were then no longer reported in the German selection, but there have also been people indirectly affected by corona for days. Figure skater Nolan Seegert has been the first German corona case among the athletes in Beijing in the quarantine hotel since Wednesday. With a delay, his pair skating partner Minerva Hase was also officially classified as a contact person. She was separated from the team in the Olympic village, but is allowed to continue training individually. Another member of the figure skating team is considered a so-called close contact.
Eric Frenzel.
(Photo: Jürgen Feichter/Eibner Europa/imago)
The number of German corona cases that were also confirmed by follow-up tests has risen to four. A supervisor from the DOSB delegation had previously tested positive. The total number of corona cases detected on entry and in the Olympic bubble has also risen constantly, as in the previous days. According to the organizers, there have now been 308 positive cases since January 23. Anyone who contracted the virus at the Beijing Olympics will be isolated in a specially designated hotel. Only after two negative PCR tests at least 24 hours apart can those affected leave before the end of ten days. After this period, only a negative PCR test is required.
Top favorite Jarl Magnus Riiber has gone to an isolation hotel
This setback for the team of the German Ski Association (DSV) does not change the fact that the medical department of the DOSB welcomes the actions of the organizers. The concept is being carried out well, “a high level of security is offered, said Olympic doctor Wolfarth, one has a “good feeling”. The German boss de Mission Dirk Schimmelpfennig also assured that the countermeasures against the corona virus in the closed Olympic Bubble are “consistent and successful”.
Nordic Combined is a quiet sport that holds its competitions in front of small audiences in the winters between games. Now he is increasingly coming into focus with the topic of Corona. Because in addition to Frenzel, 33, who could again be one of the best thanks to his experience, and Weber, 25, who has already won a World Cup this winter, a third not insignificant combined athlete had to go to the isolation hotel on Thursday: Jarl Magnus Riiber, the Norwegian, who is considered the top favorite despite recent minor problems.
Riiber’s path of infection was easier to trace than possibly that of his ski jumping and cross-country ski opponents, Frenzel and Weber. He had already been quarantined on Thursday because Kristjan Ilves, who was also infected, was the contact person for the Estonian combined athlete and podium candidate.
It is difficult to assess how Weber will cope with the coming days without any real athlete movement, after all Frenzel could benefit from his many years of experience, he is a two-time Olympic champion and has won the overall World Cup five times – even if his best times are gradually behind him.
