Six Dutch athletes have been in quarantine for several days, under conditions they consider “unacceptable”. Two sportswomen revealed on Instagram behind the scenes of their isolation, between resignation, frustration and humor.
Beware of those who catch the Covid-19 in Tokyo. Some Dutch athletes are paying the price. At least six members of the national team, including skater Candy Jacobs, taekwondoist Reshmie Oognik, a member of the rowing team, rower Finn Florijn and tennis player Jean-Julien Rojer, were tested positive for the coronavirus, then placed in quarantine at the hotel, before being deprived of competition in Tokyo. Five of them traveled on the same plane.
The city of Tokyo recorded 3,177 new cases of Covid-19 contamination on Wednesday, a record for the Japanese capital for the second day in a row. The region is experiencing its fourth state of health emergency.
Some Dutch athletes have given free rein to their frustration, while denouncing these conditions of isolation, which according to them are similar to a “Olympic prison”. Candy Jacobs, 31, posted a video on her Instagram account, where she says she is still positive for Covid, eight days after starting her quarantine.
“We need fresh air, an open window, a door. Everything is closed and nothing opens. It does not go well”, she confides, facing the camera. The young woman says that the athletes have managed to make a deal, in order to benefit, fifteen minutes a day, from an open window, at the cost of a sit-in, or “strike” from seven or eight in the lobby of their hotel. Players can only leave their tiny room to get their meals, “The same every day”, Reshmie Oognik clarified.
The taekwondoist has had fun producing one video a day on her Instagram account, since the start of her forties, where she revisits Olympic disciplines in her bedroom. On the second day, she grabs small orange plastic clogs, emblematic of Holland, and turns her laundry basket into a basketball hoop. “1.5 meters Covid distance” are delimited on the ground.
On Tuesday, the Dutch Olympic organization qualified “Unacceptable” the conditions of isolation of athletes. Mauritz Hendriks, technical director of NOC-NSF, a merger of the Dutch Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Dutch Sports Federation (NSF), was particularly indignant, criticizing “Very small parts” without ventilation or daylight: “This is not what you expect from the Japanese organization when it comes to isolating. These people see their Olympic dream fly away and are then put in bad conditions again. ”
Since the start of the Games, athletes have been subjected to daily tests, and if they are positive, have to isolate themselves or be hospitalized. Following these contaminations, the Dutch team implemented additional health measures, such as the closure of the common room, a system for reserving training spaces.
The rowing team, which sees one of its players placed in quarantine, now has its own training room. In addition, members of the delegation who have been in close contact with the athletes can continue the Games, provided they live in quarantine, said Pieter van den Hoogenband, the chef de mission of the Netherlands Olympic Committee.
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