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U.S. Bobsledder, and Her 2-Year-Old Son, Test Positive for COVID-19 at Beijing Olympics

The primary U.S. Olympic athlete to disclose a constructive COVID-19 take a look at in Beijing is bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor. She’s additionally a mom, who introduced her practically two-year-old son alongside together with her.

The 37-year-old, who has medaled within the final three winter Video games, traveled to the Chinese language capital together with her son Nico and husband Nic Taylor, who’s an alternate on the lads’s bobsled group. All three examined constructive, she informed USA Right this moment. Meyers Taylor mentioned she is asymptomatic, and quarantining alone.

“Attending to the Olympics is rarely straightforward, and this time, as a brand new mother, it has been probably the most difficult,” mentioned Meyers Taylor in a statement on Twitter. “But additionally, extremely rewarding, to have the ability to present that it could actually nonetheless be achieved.”
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USA Right this moment reporter Nancy Armour tweeted that Meyers Taylor is still nursing, and mentioned she praised each U.S. Olympic officers and the quarantine resort for getting her a breast pump and serving to to move breast milk to Nico. Meyers Taylor retweeted the message.

“I don’t get to be with my son, which might be [the] hardest a part of all of it,” she informed USA Right this moment.

Meyes Taylor arrived in Beijing Jan. 27 and examined constructive two days later. “That is simply the newest impediment that my household and I’ve confronted on this journey, so I’m remaining optimistic that I’ll be capable of get better shortly and nonetheless have the chance to compete,” she tweeted.

The ladies’s monobob occasion takes place Feb. 13-14 and the two-woman bobsled occasion is scheduled for Feb 18-19. She’ll want two damaging PCR exams 24 hours aside earlier than being cleared from isolation. Nevertheless, she’ll possible miss out on the possibility to coach on the observe forward of the Opening Ceremony on Friday. The U.S. Olympic Committee has offered her with a weight plate and suspension bands to assist her prepare in isolation.

Meyers Taylor and her household travelled to Beijing instantly from Switzerland, the place she competed on the World Cup occasion Jan. 16. The athlete, who has obtained each pictures of the COVID-19 vaccine and a booster, hasn’t been again to the U.S. since Nov. 10 as she needed to scale back the danger of catching the virus, she informed the newspaper.

She received the silver medal within the two-woman bobsled on the 2014 and 2018 Winter video games, and bronze in 2010. She is ranked world No. 1 in each that occasion and the ladies’s monobob, which can function for the primary time on the Winter Olympics this 12 months.

Meyers Taylor isn’t the primary Crew USA athlete to check constructive within the run as much as the Video games. Josh Williamson, one other U.S. bobsledder, revealed in an Instagram submit that he examined constructive for COVID-19 Jan. 23 earlier than flying out. Williamson mentioned he’ll take a later flight to the video games when he exams damaging. A 3rd bobsledder has additionally examined constructive, nonetheless, U.S. officers say they hope all three will be capable of compete.

China has pledged to placed on “easy, protected and splendid” video games. Hosted greater than two years after the primary recognized outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, the Winter Olympics function on a “closed loop” system” during which Olympic athletes, officers and media don’t come into contact with the final inhabitants of China. The system employs day by day exams, health-monitoring apps, and particular journey lanes.

Many nationwide Olympic committees, together with Crew USA, have enforced vaccine necessities on athletes and workers.

But, breakthrough infections have pushed the whole variety of constructive circumstances on the video games to 200, together with 67 amongst athletes and group officers. Greater than 466,000 COVID-19 exams have already been administered to athletes and others related to the Video games in Beijing.

China has pursued a zero-COVID coverage because the pandemic started, implementing strict city-wide lockdowns over handfuls of circumstances. Within the run as much as the Lunar New Yr, residents within the western metropolis of Xi’an and within the northwestern province of Henan had been informed to remain at residence.

Other than battling the problems of COVID-19, this 12 months’s Winter video games have been tarnished by a diplomatic boycott led by the U.S. over what Washington says are China’s “crimes towards humanity in Xinjiang, and different human rights abuses.” Beijing denies the allegations.

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