- Athletes from various branches have reported that they suffer from Covid-19.
- In regions like Great Britain, sporting events were canceled or postponed.
- However, there are still some doubts about matches and meetings of various disciplines.
Sports are not spared from the exponential increase in Covid-19 cases linked to the Omicron variant and they feel the threat of a new total door closure, or even a “brake” in competitions.
In the English championship, ‘Boxing Day’ (a day after Christmas) did not have its usual festive aspect, with 3 games postponed, including Liverpool-Leeds. Two games scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday have already been added to that list.
In total, the Premier League was forced to postpone a dozen games in the last 3 dates. This while Britain faces a record number of infections.
Wales decided that all sporting events should be played behind closed doors. In Scotland the 3-week winter ‘brake’ was brought forward: it started on Monday instead of January 3.
The other major European championships will resume between now and the first week of January, and could also be affected by the omicron variant.
In Germany, where the Bundesliga is due to resume on January 7, all sporting competitions, including football matches, will take place behind closed doors.
Waiting for Djokovic
Another potential victim is tennis. The Australian Open is due to start on January 17. Three players (Rafael Nadal, Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov) tested positive for Covid, casting doubt on their presence in the first Grand Slam of the year.
“Now I have to recover and will only go to Melbourne when this is all safe for everyone,” Rublev said on Twitter.
The world number 1, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, who refuses to comment on whether or not he is vaccinated against Covid, will announce in principle before the end of the year if he will be at the Australian Open, an important event for sports.
His environment has already indicated that he will not be at the ATP Cup (January 1-9) in Sydney, the first date of the year.
To be authorized to enter Australian territory, players and their technical teams must be vaccinated.
Alpine skiing is not breaking out either. The American Mikaela Shiffrin, in charge of the Women’s World Cup, announced that she tested positive for covid-19, and that is why she will miss the tests in Lienz (Austria) on Tuesday and Wednesday.
«I’m fine but unfortunately I tested positive for Covid-19. I follow the protocol and I am in isolation ”, wrote the alpine ski star with 72 World Cup victories.
The cases of Covid-19 have multiplied for a few weeks in the women’s ski circuit, with the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, the New Zealand Alice Robinson or the Austrian Katharina Liensberger.
NBA and NHL in the storm
In the United States, the NBA basketball championship continues for the moment, but teams are decimated by Covid cases, with 27 of the 30 franchises rocked by the pandemic, according to figures released Sunday for the championship. North American.
The Atlanta Hawks are deprived of 11 players, the Celtics of 9. One consolation: The NBA allows teams to sign players for short-term contracts who play in the reserve championship to cover the losses.
And the US-Canadian ice hockey championships saw the resumption after the Christmas “brake” postponed to Tuesday so that the NHL can analyze the Covid-19 test results.
The 14 games scheduled for this day were rescheduled, bringing to 67 the total number of games rescheduled in the NHL this season due to Covid, “hitting” one of the most important sports.
