‘I have no more tears’: Beijing’s Winter Olympics hit by athlete complaints

On the eve of the Winter Olympics, China promised the world a "streamlined, safe and most splendid" Games. But just two days into the event organisers are facing a litany of complaints from athletes and countries on multiple fronts.

The Swedes have suggested that the conditions in the mountains are perilously cold. A Polish skater says she was living in fear in a Beijing isolation ward and has "cried until I have no more tears". The Finns have claimed an ice hockey player is being kept in Covid quarantine for no reason. And the Germans? They are frustrated that there is no hot food at the downhill skiing.

Athletes were always going to face difficulties in Beijing, given they are in a "closed loop" system that forbids them from leaving the village except to train, compete or go home. However, a growing number are now expressing frustration and anguish with other aspects of their Winter Olympic experience.

Plummeting temperatures are usually a given at the Games, but the Swedish delegation are urging cross-country skiing events to be held earlier in the day after one athlete, Frida Karlsson, was seen shaking and close to collapse at the end of the women's 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon.

Under the rules of the International Ski Federation (FIS), competitions are stopped from taking place when temperatures are below -20c. When Karlsson competed on Saturday, temperatures at the National Cross-Country Centre in the mountains of Zhangjiakou, 130 miles north-west of Beijing, were -13C - but with windchill it was far colder.

"We have the cold limits but I do not know if they also measure the wind effect," the Swedish team boss Anders Bystroem told reporters. "If FIS says it's -17 degrees and it's windy, and it's -35 degrees with the wind chill, what do you do then?"

The Swede called for Tuesday's women's sprint race to be moved earlier in the day because of the freezing temperatures. "The skiathlon started at 4pm and Frida Karlsson was completely destroyed by the cold. It's not good that the sprint starts even later," he added.