By Philip O’Connor
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (Reuters) – Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber still hopes to take part in the Beijing Winter Olympics despite a positive test for COVID-19 that saw him placed in isolation away from his team mates, his coach Jan Schmidt told Reuters.
A silver medallist in Pyeongchang, the 24-year-old was coming into the Games as one of Norway’s biggest medal hopes, but the positive test saw an abrupt change of course as he was whisked away to isolation.
“He is surprisingly fine, except for the numbers, and he has taken it very well,” Schmidt said at the cross-country ski venue on Friday. “I think he was a little bit prepared for this scenario because he had the same problem in November, so I think he was a little bit mentally prepared.
“Of course, it’s really, really sad — this is his highlight of the season, but he’s practically-minded, so he is looking at what can we do? How fast can you be back?”
Riiber took silver in the team event at the 2018 Olympics and won two gold and two silver medals at the World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany in 2021.
That made him one of the favourites for the podium in Beijing, and the Norwegian team are not giving up on him just yet.
“I think there is a chance, of course, but there’s at least an equally big chance that it’s not going to happen. But we have to hope,” Schmidt said as the wind whistled down the finishing straight of the cross-country course behind him.
“He has to stay here anyway until his numbers are on the right side of the limit, so we stay here and we will hope. We’ve tried to give him a bike in his room and some training equipment so that he can stay active, just in case,” he added.
The Nordic combined competitions begin with the men’s normal hill on Feb 9.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
