For a while, it looked like the sport was on its way back to normal tracks.
But just in time for the Beijing Winter Olympics, stricter restrictions have been reintroduced, stands have been emptied and positive covid tests have replaced each other.
This has – among other things – happened only in the last few weeks:
The World Cup in France next weekend canceled due to the progress of the new corona variant omikron.
The prestigious evening slalom in Flachau, Austria? Also set.
Junior World Cup in ice hockey was blown off, infection ravages the Swedish alpine national team, and big stars like American Mikaela Shiffrin (alpine), Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami (alpine), and Sven Thorgren (snowboard) have missed competitions after positive tests.
A positive test result The weeks before the Olympics do not only mean possible illness and deteriorating shape and health. Without even missing recharging, missed world cup points and in case of real bad luck a canceled Beijing trip.
– I will be honest and say that it is clear that you walk around and are worried. There are also so many who test positive without symptoms. I feel super healthy, but still you do not know, says Swedish slalom star Anna Swenn-Larsson, who this weekend competes in Slovenian Kranjska Gora, to DN.
– I think the whole situation is generally difficult. And it’s another tour life, not as fun. You drive alone in a car, wear a mask and keep your distance at all times.
She’s not afraid for the disease itself because many get mild symptoms, she says.
– But it feels like a lottery, that anyone can be affected.
– Anna Swenn-Larsson, here in Zagreb this week, competes this weekend in Kranjska Gora.
Photo: Igor Kupljenik / TT
Slalom colleague Kristoffer Jakobsen, who next competes in the Swiss Nobility on Sunday, agrees.
– It is clear that I am worried, maybe not directly for my health. But it’s not so fun to get covid and miss ten days (according to the International Ski Federation’s new rules).
Jakobsen has received his third dose of vaccine. Swenn-Larsson will take his later in January.
– But then I know a lot of people who have tested positive anyway, says the 30-year-old.
In the biathlon national team – which this weekend continues the World Cup in Oberhof, Germany – Sebastian Samuelsson has told that he awaits with vaccine dose three more after the Olympics for fear of side effects. But the biathletes also live strictly.
– It is clear that it is worrying that the infection is spreading so much, says the golden jumper Hanna Öberg.
– As far as I know, it has not entered biathlon in the same way as in, for example, alpine. But it is clear that if you get a positive test now, it is a big risk … we know that we must take two negative tests before we go to China.
– Biathlon star Hanna Öberg competes in Oberhof this weekend.
Photo: Maxim Thoré / Bildbyrån
She continues:
– But I feel safe with the structure we have within the team. We have taken even stricter rules of conduct and gone back to the plan we had last season, with several small bubbles in the big bubble. Now it is only your roommate who should be your “close contact”. We have done just about everything we can to keep the infection away and do tests all the time.
At the same time, it is not always easy to keep your distance in a competition or training situation.
That’s what Olympic-ready snowboarder Niklas Mattsson says, who is currently charging for next week’s slopestyle competition in Laax (Switzerland).
– It is a big uncertainty now, so in training I probably have to think that I should let everyone else go first.
– In Laax, for example, there are 60 skiers who have a two-hour training. Many are almost crowded at the start to get many rides. But I have to trust the routine there, and I have never felt that I have to tackle it.
– Niklas Mattsson is ready for his third Olympics in snowboarding.
Photo: Pontus Lundahl / TT
Then it still not six months have passed since he received his second dose of vaccine, he is unsure if he will have time to take the third. The same applies to the riders in the freeskiing national team, right now on site at the slopestyle world cup in Mammoth Mountain (USA).
– But everyone in our team is positive about taking the vaccine, says national team captain Niklas Eriksson.
– The riders understand that responsibility when we travel around the world and compete.
Next week, freeski riders will compete in France.
The World Cup there was canceled. Will your competition end?
– Right now, nothing else has been said. But we’ll see what happens this week.