Bujold, Canadian teammates in isolation
Olympic boxing hopeful’s training cut short due to positive COVID-19 test
Finally back training with teammates for the first time in months, and with an Olympic qualifying date set, boxer Mandy Bujold could see light at the end of the tunnel.
But Canada’s 11-time flyweight boxing champion and 18 of her teammates are in isolation after national team training in Montreal was cut short this week due to a positive COVID-19 test.
“It definitely stops momentum in the sense of everything was going really well in training and you start working towards something and you keep building on that,” Bujold said. “So, now obviously, not being allowed to be with my coach, or my training partners or anything like that, you’re really limited on what you can really do when you’re by yourself.
“In that sense it’s tough.” The 33-year-old Bujold said she was in close contact on Monday with an athlete who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. That athlete’s identity
hasn’t been revealed. Bujold has tested negative twice since, but quarantine protocols stipulate she must isolate for 14 days from the date of contact.
Bujold said the boxers were working in small groups in Montreal.
She drove home to Kitchener, Ont., on Wednesday and is staying in a friend’s empty house there.
“It’s not fun but I guess it’s part of the process,” Bujold said. “It’s unfortunate the camp ended early. We didn’t get to do the
test matches and the things we went there to do.”
A Boxing Canada spokesperson said they were informed of a positive COVID-19 test result at training on Monday, immediately halted all team activities and are awaiting further test results.
It’s the latest setback for Bujold and her Canadian teammates, who have yet to clinch spots in the Tokyo Olympics. Combat sports have been hit particularly hard during the pandemic because of tighter protocols.
But things were looking up after the continental qualifiers, scrapped last March due to the global pandemic, were finally rescheduled earlier this week for May 10-16 in Argentina.
“At beginning of the week, when we finally got the announcement for the qualifiers, the energy and intensity changed and you knew, OK, this is the build-up, this is the moment,” Bujold said.
“As you prepare for events, your body just kind of knows when to turn it on. I was feeling really good.”
It’s a great lesson in how quickly things can go sideways in a global pandemic, Bujold said.
“If this would have happened right before qualifying that would have been the worst possible case. Or even if it was a week before, and then you just can’t even leave the country, right?” she said.
“It just really opened my eyes to OK, when we do go back to our normal training, even in our small little bubble, that we do have to take extra precautions, because you just have no idea, it just comes so quickly.”