These pictures from the Olympics will stick in your memory: Eric Frenzel had exhausted himself completely in the Nordic Combined team competition and was then too exhausted to take part in the award ceremony.
And the man from Upper Palatinate wasn’t the only one: His combined athlete colleague Jarl Magnus Riiber from Norway also collapsed, the German pair skater Nolan Seegert had to stop the freestyle with his partner. They all had Corona before.
“Corona is not an easy infection after all”
“The consequences of a corona infection are often underestimated. We see it in the general population as well as in competitive sports. Christian Schneider.
The doctors can’t really blame themselves, says the bobsledder’s team doctor. After all, all athletes have been extensively tested, e.g. B. with regard to the inflammation values before they were allowed to start. But here the mysterious virus still has a head start: “We don’t even know what the long-term consequences of Corona are. What is the drop in performance in which sports? We simply still know far too little,” says Dr. Cutter.
Altitude and cold bothered the athletes
But not only Corona caused problems for some athletes. Also the height of the competition venues: how the Norwegian biathlete Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold tumbled to the finish line looked worrying – these images are also burned into my memory. “You can adapt to it as best you can. But if an infection or something else comes along, then you see this drop in performance,” notes the team doctor.
And then there was the cold – double-digit minus temperatures prevailed again and again. “At minus 14 degrees, every winter sports nation says – well, it’s winter now. But if there’s still a strong wind whistling and I feel like minus 40 degrees, then it’s just too cold. And the associations have to set limits there,” demands Dr . Cutter.
Hardly any more flu infections – thanks to mask & Co.
After all, Christian Schneider brings a great learning effect from Beijing: “What we usually have in winter sports are flu infections. We don’t have that anymore. Using a mask and complying with hygiene rules really helped.”
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