Olympic athletes who have tested positive for COVID-19 or whose test results are “unclear” are being stuck in dirty Chinese coronavirus hostels and given food that looks like, well, you tell us what that stuff is.
Welcome to the Chinese Olympics version of the Hunger Games.
A photo of a plate of food was sent out on social media by Russian biathlete Valeria Vasnetsova, who says there’s so little appetizing food in the Chinese COVID gulag that her “bones are sticking out.”
“My stomach hurts, I’m very pale, and I have huge black circles under my eyes,” complained the biathlete. Those symptoms aren’t from COVID-19; they’re from the disgusting food fed to athletes suffering in isolated quarantine after testing positive or generating “unclear” results on daily PCR tests. While they’re supposed to be getting better, Vasnetsova, who wasn’t sick, complains she’s getting worse. “I want all this to end. I cry every day. I’m very tired.” Probably from boredom.
Russian athlete Valeria Vasnetsova posted this photo on Instagram.
She says that the same meal has been served at the Winter Olympics in Beijing for "breakfast, lunch, and dinner for five days already." pic.twitter.com/AspgWEqutb
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) February 7, 2022
Some suspect the bad food is meant to sabotage opposing athletes. Kasnetsova “did a little detective work” according to the Associated Press, and discovered that other isolated honchos were getting better food than the athletes in the COVID hotels. “[H]er team doctor, who had also tested positive and was living two floors below. He had fresh fruit, a salad and prawns with broccoli,” AP reported.
“I honestly don’t understand, why is there this attitude to us, the athletes?!” asked the biathlete.
Senator Marco Rubio wonders, too. The senate’s biggest critic of communist China called this year’s games the “Genocide Olympics” and tweeted that he’s “not surprised that so many world class athletes are having terrible performances at the #GenocideOlympics … Many are complaining of horrendous food,3rd World accommodations & being held hostage for days after no longer testing positive … #Beijing2022 are the worst Olympics ever.”
Not surprised that so many world class athletes are having terrible performances at the #GenocideOlympics
Many are complaining of horrendous food,3rd World accommodations & being held hostage for days after no longer testing positive#Beijing2022 are the worst Olympics ever
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 8, 2022
It’s not like the training table in the regular part of the Olympic Village looks all that fun, either.
Robo food service delivery in the bubble at Beijing Winter Olympics. pic.twitter.com/713LUEmZXZ
— Stephen Wade (@StephenWadeAP) February 2, 2022
Kasnetsova is not the only one complaining. Conditions are so bad that other Olympic teams are speaking out. The Daily Mail reports that Germany’s Olympic team chief says the conditions — small, dirty rooms, poor food, little to no internet access — are “unreasonable.” The daily PCR COVID tests athletes must take to get sprung from isolation aren’t being given. He complained one of his athletes, Nordic combined skier Eric Frenzel, left isolation and was barely fit to compete.
The “trauma” of being in the Chinese COVID isolation hotel left Polish speed skater Natalia Maliszewska “crying and crying.”
Whatever that is won’t help dry her tears.
What is that ? pic.twitter.com/IKsQ5Y38ft
— Random Bot (@randombott) February 8, 2022
Yeesh.
Other athletes reported to have been stuck in isolation in the Chinese COVID hotels are American ice skater Vincent Zhou, Austrian snowboarder Sabine Schoffmann, and Finnish hockey player Marko Anttila, according to the Mail. The head of Finland’s ice hockey team says China is violating Anttila’s human rights by keeping him in isolation when his tests are clear.
Time Magazine reports that 32 athletes are in COVID isolation, which has left them distraught. These are people who have worked toward this event for much of their lives, and “who face the possibility of missing competitions after years of training.”
Nearly 400 people have been in and out of the Chinese COVID quarantine hotel.
China allows isolated people to get sprung after two negative PCR tests “taken 24 hours apart.”
Related: China Scores Propaganda Triumph at Opening of Genocide Olympics
More than 12,000 athletes and others have entered the “Olympic bubble,” as they call it.
The chairman of the Beijing Games medical panel, Brian McCloskey, told Time they’ll “allow as many people out of isolation as we can, but only as many as we can do safely.” He said it’s hard to tell who’s contagious since people who were infected continue to trigger the PCR test for a while after symptoms.
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