Corona nightmare at the Olympics: the athlete sends a cry for help

Created: 2022-02-04 05:54

By: Patrick Mayer

Corona scandal at the 2022 Olympics: Winter athlete Kim Meylemans is taken to a shielded place after a positive corona test.

A call for help follows on Instagram.

Munich/Beijing – Olympia 2022 has a huge corona scandal before the winter games in Beijing have even started.

The Belgian skeleton driver Kim Meylemans, who was born in Germany, had to go back into isolation despite three negative corona tests.

It is the beginning of a real nightmare for the winter sportswoman.

Because: The 25-year-old apparently no longer knew where she was taken by the Chinese authorities.

And where it is.

Olympia 2022: Corona nightmare about Kim Meylemans

On Instagram, the Olympian then sent a call for help to the wide world – and cried bitterly.

She seemed visibly desperate.

"You may have read the good news that I was released from isolation.

We figured this would mean I would be allowed back into the Olympic Village and treated as a contact person at most.

On the way to the (Olympic Village) we didn't turn off to this one.

Instead, the ambulance drove to another facility," she explained in a video message on the social media channel: "Where I am now.

I believe my National Olympic Committee is just as surprised by this decision.

I guess I'll have to stay here for another seven days, with two PCR tests a day and no contact with anyone."

Corona nightmare at the 2022 Olympics: Kim Meylemans.

© Instagram@kimmeylemans

Meyleman's voice falters again and again.

She fights back tears.

"We don't know if I'll ever be allowed to go back to the (Olympic) Village.

And obviously it's very hard for me, "the athlete continues and says: "So I ask you all to give me a little time so that I can think about my next steps.

Because: I'm not sure I can stay in Olympic competition for another 14 days while I'm in this isolation."

Kim Meylemans: Belgian is only allowed to go to the Olympic Village after the Corona nightmare

Their odyssey apparently only came to an end when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) under President Thomas Bach took the opportunity.

As the Belgian Olympic Committee (BOIC) has meanwhile announced, Meylemans is back in the Olympic Village in Yanqing.

There she will continue to be monitored over the next seven days "as part of the so-called 'Close Contacts Policy'," wrote the BOIC in a statement.

Marked by the hardships of corona quarantine: Kim Meylemans at the 2022 Olympics. © Instagram@kimmeylemans

She will be accommodated in a single room and tested twice a day.

As the IOC announced, "the BOIC was contacted immediately to ensure that the athlete was offered appropriate help quickly".

That could no longer prevent the Corona scandal at the already controversial Winter Olympics.

Beijing had recently cordoned off entire districts when individual corona cases became known to the population.