German ski boss warns of Olympics’ Covid testing ‘manipulation’

BERLIN: A lack of clarity over Covid-19 testing at the Beijing Winter Olympics “opens the door to manipulation”, the boss of the German Alpine skiing team warned on Friday.

“You can take anyone out of circulation who gets in your way,” Wolfgang Maier, head of Alpine events in the German Ski Federation (DSV), told reporters.

“We have no protection for the athletes and are defectively exposed to despotism there.”

Maier is concerned about the rigid Covid protocol for the Beijing Games, which start on February 4, as a positive PCR test for the virus would immediately remove an athlete from competition.

The 60-year-old wants clarity from the Chinese organisers of the Olympics on the CT value of PCR testing, which indicates whether a coronavirus-infected person is contagious.

“I see the whole situation as being very problematic,” Maier added.

“Under the current circumstances, I think it is hardly justifiable to send athletes and coaches there.”

Maier feels that if nothing changes, “the athletes will live with the psychological burden every day: Tomorrow I can be out”.

“I already demanded last autumn that clear regulations must be put in place from which CT value a test is assessed as positive or negative,” he added, “but we haven’t received any information about this.”

He also criticised the decision that athletes must leave Beijing within 48 hours of completing their events.

“Where is the grandiose Olympic idea of the world’s youth gathering in China if people no longer have any cultural exchange outside the sports venues and have to leave within 48 hours?”