Belgian skeleton star Kim Meylemans, in a tearful social media video on Feb. 2, said she was placed in isolation after being quarantined for three days despite a number of negative COVID-19 tests, and worried that she couldn’t participate in the competition.
The 25-year-old provided an update on Feb. 3, saying that after the IOC’s involvement, she was given a room at the Beijing Olympic Village.
“I am now in a wing that is just as isolated but at least I’m back in the village. I feel safe and I will be able to train a little better here so thank you all,” Meylemans said in an Instagram video on Feb. 3.
Currently, Meylemans lives in a single room at the Olympic Village as a close contact of a COVID-19 patient, where she can train but has to take the transportation alone, and eat alone.
A Tearful Video
Meylemans posted on Instagram an emotional video from an isolation hotel room on Feb. 2, in which she cried for help because the Beijing regime put her into isolation and told her that she had to live there for at least seven days without proper training.
“I’m supposed to stay here for another seven days with two PCRs [COVID-19 tests] a day and no contact with anybody else,” Meylemans said with tears in her eyes in the video. “I ask you all to give me some time to consider my next steps. Because I’m not sure I can handle 14 more days and the Olympic competition now being this isolation.”
Meylemans flew to Beijing on Jan. 29, with her fellow Belgian Olympians. She was quarantined after she entered China because her arrival COVID-19 PCR test was positive. She was told that she would be allowed to enter the Olympic Village after three days of negative test results, and would be treated as close contact of someone who tested positive.
By Nicole Hao