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A32 sports
Diasabra 13 November 2021

Travel trouble: US Olympians face uncertain road to Beijing

(AP) — Making an Olym- between the countries from
pic team is hard enough. more than 300 a week to sin-
This winter, those who gle digits. The rollbacks start-
earn their spots on the ed when demand dropped off
U.S. squad might find it sharply in the wake of early
takes even more work to COVID-19 outbreaks. The
get to Beijing. reinstatement of the flights
was slowed because of diplo-
Among the slow trickle of matic wrangling between the
information coming out of countries, along with strict
China in advance of Febru- quarantine rules that makes
ary’s Olympics was news travel to either place difficult.
that, with virtually no flights Just this week did the U.S.
operating between North reopen travel to some foreign
America and China, Olym- visitors who can show proof
pians very well might have of vaccination.
to get to Beijing through a
still-undetermined set of The U.S. athletes are now
connecting flights that could collateral damage in this, as
more than double their travel the USOPC negotiates with
time. Delta for charter flights that
are expected to cost well into
As things stand this month, six figures.
most of the 250 or so athletes
who make the U.S. team will and schedule,” U.S. skier flights into Beijing are ex- jing. Though the extremely limit-
need to take a charter that Mikaela Shiffrin said in a re- pected to depart from Tokyo, ed number of flights between
connects them to Beijing- cent interview with The As- Seoul, Hong Kong and Paris. Rick Adams, the USOPC’s America and China is unique,
bound flights scheduled out sociated Press. “But we very The U.S. ski and snowboard chief of sport performance, the U.S. isn’t the only one
of four cities, none of which rarely don’t have a plan at all. team’s tentative plan is to said everyone was aware that dealing with an unprecedent-
are in North America. So that is definitely another charter flights from Los An- the quick turnaround af- ed amount of uncertainty this
added source of stress.” geles to one of the points in ter the Tokyo Olympics and close to the Games. A recent
The uncertainty has turned Asia, then switch to Olympic the COVID-19 protocols search of the Air Canada
what is already a logistical Difficult travel is nothing charters. Further complicat- “would make planning for website offered at least one
challenge — getting all these new for Olympic athletes, ing the issue is that some of Beijing very complex.” option for flights between
Olympians and their thou- and their schedules have only these athletes are in Europe Vancouver and Beijing (with
sands of pounds of equip- become more jumbled in the for the World Cup season. “That said, we pride our- a stop in Shanghai), where
ment to China — into some- wake of the COVID-19 pan- Without normal commercial selves on being the best pre- similar searches of Delta
thing even more complex. demic that reshuffled com- options available, the task of pared NOC and NPC in the and United websites offered
And it has turned what is petition schedules and, with moving them around is more world, and we are exploring none between the U.S. and
already an event beset with New Zealand mostly shut difficult. all options to get our Olym- Beijing.
unprecedented challenges down, made it even harder to pic and Paralympic athletes
— less freedom of move- find snow during the offsea- The U.S. Olympic and Para- — as well as support staff — “Planning for these Games
ment, a vaccine mandate and son. lympic Committee is ulti- to the Games safely and effi- has been challenging due to
the prospect of competing mately in charge of getting ciently,” he said. COVID-19, but we experi-
in a country that is poised The U.S. Olympic team’s the ski team and the rest of enced similar issues during
to restrict negative coverage, sponsor, Delta Airlines, the U.S. teams, outside of Athletes aren’t the only group our planning for Tokyo,” Ca-
including over widely docu- might still be able to arrange hockey, to Beijing. With an being impacted by China’s nadian Olympic Committee
mented human-rights abuses charter flights directly from extra connection through rulemaking in advance of the CEO David Shoemaker said.
— into something even more the U.S. to Beijing, but with Asia, or a stop in Europe, Olympics. “We have no reason to believe
difficult. 11 weeks until the start of the travel times could be around that we will have any trouble
Games, everything is still up double what would normally The Foreign Correspondents getting Team Canada to the
“We’re very used to being in the air. be a 12-hour journey from Club of China put out a state- Games on time and ready to
flexible with our planning As of this week, approved the U.S. West Coast to Bei- ment this month complain- compete.”
ing of “lack of transparency”
from the Beijing Organiz-
ing Committee and the IOC
with regards to Olympic-re-
lated reporting in China.

The organizing committee
told China’s Xinhua news
agency that it plans on in-
creasing credentials for test
events and is assigning staff
to manage interview requests
and inquiries. The commit-
tee said it does not recognize
the FCCC.
Most journalists and Olym-
pic support staff also have
been on hold in making their
travel plans.

Much of the travel confu-
sion stems from U.S. and
Chinese carriers’ decisions to
reduce the number of flights