Olympics-Cross-country skiing-Norway’s Weng to skip Games after positive COVID test

February 8, 2022

(Reuters) -Norway’s Heidi Weng will not travel to Beijing to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19 before the Games, the cross-country skier confirmed on Tuesday.

The 2014 bronze medallist and five-time world champion tested positive for COVID-19 following a recent training camp in Italy and her coach Ole Morten Iversen had said she may skip the Games.

“The dream of revenge in the Olympics was shattered for me. It is ‘only’ an Olympics, but it is still sad,” Weng, 30, wrote on Instagram.

“It’s been some tough years for all of us… Now there are hopefully more World Cup races left, and then I will be ready for battle.”

Norway will not send a replacement for Weng due to China’s COVID-19 restrictions and the strict testing routines, the team’s cross-country manager Espen Bjervig told Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang.

“It turns out that it has taken longer than we had hoped to get Heidi ready for the Olympics after a COVID infection,” Bjervig said.

“With the experience we now have with uncertainty around testing after quarantine, it will be too short a time … in terms of altitude acclimatisation, to send a replacement.”

(Reporting by Tommy LundEditing by Toby Davis)