From days of COVID testing do airport workers in full hazmat suits, arriving at the Beijing Olympics it like something out of a disaster movie.
BEIJING—“Relax,” the nurse says. But when the nurse is wrapped head-to-toe in a hazmat suit, and you’re sitting in an empty, echoing airport, and there’s a swab stabbing so deep in your brain it’s dislodging childhood memories, relaxation is tough to achieve.
Some athletes have been preparing for Olympic logistics for months. “I’ve been training in Europe since November,” says Team USA biathlete Paul Schommer. “I’ve been asking before every situation, ‘What’s the smart thing to do here? Is it even smart to do this?’” He decided not to return home for Christmas, and spiraling Omicron numbers bore out the wisdom of his decision.
Many people headed to the Olympics rolled back the clock to March 2020, quarantining and sectioning themselves off from a society that’s largely through with COVID even if COVID isn’t through with them. Others had to resort to best judgment, hope and prayer … and then test twice before getting on the plane.
Positive tests in hand, travelers submitted enough personal information to apply for five home loans, then waited for government approval and the generation of a specific QR code on their phones. No code, no boarding. “I was pleasantly surprised. I was thinking we weren’t going to be able to get up, weren’t going to be able to eat,” says long jumper Casey Larson. “It was a lot more relaxed than that. It definitely exceeded expectations.”Once figures on the ground in Beijing become visible, it’s very clear this is no longer America.
There’s that nasal swab; the earliest journalists through reported its severity on Twitter, and no matter how prepared you think you are, you’re not prepared enough. Then travelers are subdivided, more and more, into the three venues of the Games and from there into the various hotels within the venues. Shuttle buses snap up a few travelers at a time, and anywhere from 4-8 hours after travelers land in Beijing, they reach their hotel rooms.
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