Olympians may have trained close to infected rugby player
Members of Great Britain’s Olympic team may have spent days training near a Scotland Women’s rugby player being treated for coronavirus, it was revealed yesterday.
The player’s diagnosis last week forced the postponement of her country’s Six Nations match against France and led to her being taken for treatment at a healthcare facility.
But the student had earlier spent time at her university accommodation at Loughborough, returning there after travelling to Italy for a Six Nations game that was also postponed amid fears over the deadly disease.
Many of Team GB’S Olympians use the facilities at Loughborough University, including Rio 2016 champion Adam Peaty and Tokyo 2020 hopefuls Morgan Lake and Niamh Emerson.
Specialist cleaners in protective suits were this week pictured deepcleaning an area near the campus’s Powerbase gym, which is reserved for use by the elite athletes for part of the day.
A friend of the infected rugby player said she had hugged her in the university’s students’ union bar the day before she was diagnosed, and was now in isolation.
Student Meg Davey, 19, who is part of the development squad for the England women’s rugby team, told Mailonline: “I just went about my normal routine – went to lectures, went to the gym, went to the student union. It was not until a week after that I found out she had coronavirus.
“I’ve been in isolation for three days. I think it will be a week before I can join everyone again. I don’t believe she participated in any training.”
Athletes linked to Loughborough University won 42 medals at Rio 2016. Many are based at the High Performance Athletics Centre, home to the British Athletics National Performance Institute and Loughborough Students Athletics Club.
The athletics centre includes the Seb Coe High Performance Athletics Centre, Paula Radcliffe Athletics Track and Steve Backley National Throws Centre. It is also just a few hundred metres from the England
and Wales Cricket Board’s performance centre. Boxer Dillian Whyte trains at Loughborough as well.
Robert Allison, the university’s vice-chancellor, has twice written to students to reassure them after rumours spread that there were multiple cases of coronavirus on campus.
He wrote: “Rumours have been circulating of multiple positive cases. This is not true. I am pleased to say that the student that tested positive is being well cared for. The individual is not in Loughborough and has not been on the campus since March 3.”
Allison said public health authorities were satisfied they had identified everyone the student with Covid-19 had contact with and any individual was self-isolating as a precaution.
“Cleaning duties on the campus have been changed to prioritise higher-risk features such as bannisters, gym equipment, door handles and communal areas,” he added.