The Austrian Olympic Committee will set off for the Olympic Games in Beijing with 42 male and 62 male athletes. The team size of 104 means one fewer than four years ago in PyeongChang, when 14 medals (five gold, three silver and six bronze) were won. Ski star Matthias Mayer, snowboarders Anna Gasser and Julia Dujmovits and tobogganist David Gleirscher are back after winning the titles in the past.
The games are taking place under difficult conditions due to the corona pandemic, all people involved in the Olympics enter a bubble when entering China and are only allowed to move within it. PCR tests take place daily, and those who test positive are transferred to a quarantine hotel or to a hospital if the course is symptomatic. The games are not unproblematic from another point of view either, numerous countries are reacting to China’s human rights violations with political boycotts.
Among those who were not nominated are well-known names such as Chiara Mair, Max Franz, Stefan Brennsteiner and Fabio Gstrein (alpine skiing), Julian Eberhard (biathlon), Chiara Kreuzer and Philipp Aschenwald (ski jumping) and Lukas Klapfer (Nordic combined). Due to injuries, Adrian Pertl and Roland Leitinger, among others, were not an issue for the Alpine athletes, for Nicole Schmidhofer and Nina Ortlieb the Olympics came too early after their injuries. Snowboarder Claudia Riegler is not vaccinated against the corona virus and was therefore not nominated.
The alpine camp is still hoping for two additional starting places: the ÖSV and other nations are waiting for the IOC to agree to the proposal to transfer unused quota places from other sports to the alpine, or for the World Ski Federation (FIS) to cancel questionable races, which caused a shift in quotas. The discussion is ongoing.
Source: Nachrichten
