The coach of the Finnish men’s ice hockey team yesterday accused China of not respecting a player’s human rights, saying that Marko Anttila was being kept in COVID-19 isolation for no reason.
Finland head coach Jukka Jalonen made the remark shortly after Germany said it was satisfied with a swift improvement of isolation conditions for their three athletes who tested positive for COVID-19 and are in quarantine.
German team head Dirk Schimmelpfennig on Saturday called conditions for triple Olympic gold medalist Nordic combined skier Eric Frenzel and two other German athletes “unacceptable,” demanding a complete overhaul including bigger and cleaner rooms, Internet access, sports equipment and better food.
Schimmelpfennig yesterday said that organizers had acted quickly following a concerted effort by the team, the ski federation and the International Olympic Committee.
For Finland’s Anttila some issues remain, mainly with regard to the quality of food on offer.
“He is not getting great food and he is a very big guy,” Jalonen said. “He would like to have more energy and better food there as well. Because he doesn’t know what’s going on and what will happen with him. It is like uncertainties so it is a bad thing also mentally.”
Finnish Olympic team doctor Maarit Valtonen said that Anttila had tested positive 18 days ago, but produced several negative results prior to departing for Beijing.
When Anttila arrived in China he tested positive and was immediately taken to an isolation hotel.
“We know that he’s fully healthy and ready to go and that’s why we think that China, for some reason, they won’t respect his human rights and that’s not a great situation,” Jalonen said.
Valtonen said that it is clear now that Anttila, a ninth round pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2004 NHL draft, is no longer infectious and that China’s decision to keep him in isolation has more to do with politics than medicine.
“These isolation decisions are not based on medicine or science, it’s more cultural and political decisions,” Voltonen said.
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