Tokyo 2021: the "Olympic prison" of Dutch sportswomen tested positive for Covid-19
Tested positive for Covid-19, quarantined in a hotel and deprived of competition in Tokyo, Dutch sportswomen expressed their great frustration on Wednesday, denouncing what they called an "Olympic prison", and demanded more time in the 'outdoors.
Their Olympic dream is shattered and they live from hell. Dutch sportswomen , tested positive for Covid-19 and placed in quarantine by the Japanese authorities, criticized, Wednesday July 28, what they qualify as an "Olympic prison", and demand more time in the open air.
In a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, Dutch skater Candy Jacobs , 31, said she still tested positive for coronavirus eight days after starting her ten-day quarantine. "Yesterday (Tuesday, Editor's note), we went on strike because we need outside air, anything (...), because nothing opens. The windows are closed, the doors do not open, never. It does not go, "she criticized.
A strike
The skater and her five compatriots and companions in misfortune - taëkwondoist Reshmie Oogink, a member of the rowing team, rower Finn Florijn and tennis player Jean-Julien Rojer - went on strike. by not moving from the lobby of their hotel. After seven to eight hours of this sit-in, they ended up getting fifteen minutes a day of access to an open window, according to Candy Jacobs.
The skate champion blamed the blow when she learned that she would not be competing. "I died a little bit. I have never been heartbroken in my life and there I felt like someone was dead, really," she told the newspaper. Team . Since then, despite the disappointment and this life of recluse, she tries to keep busy: "I'm holding on. I've had hard days, but I try to stay positive. Physically, I feel better but I have lost the taste. I'm trying to take 10,000 steps a day, but mentally it's super tough. It's the biggest mental battle of my life. "
On Tuesday, the Dutch Olympic organization had already castigated the "unacceptable" conditions of isolation of six members of its delegation in Tokyo, locked in "very small rooms" without ventilation or daylight.
Each cloistered in their rooms, the Dutch can only go out to get their meal, which is "the same every day", also complained Reshmie Oogink . The taekwondoist posted a video on Instagram showing what looks like a scarecrow sitting on a bed made from her belongings and sports equipment. "New inmate in the Olympic prison", she quipped in the caption of the video where she said: "I have a new friend, called Bob. He is ready to fight.".
Dutch media reported on Wednesday a seventh positive case in the Netherlands team, a rowing team supervisor. All athletes who came to Japan to participate in the Tokyo Olympics which opened last Friday are tested daily and if they are positive they must isolate themselves or be hospitalized.
France 24