Two Olympic skiers from Switzerland diagnosed with norovirus
Two freestyle skiers from Switzerland have been diagnosed with norovirus at the Winter Games, the Swiss Olympic team confirmed to Reuters and the BBC on Friday.
The International Olympic Committee had said at a news conference earlier Friday that two skiers were not staying at the Olympic village because they were "unwell."
The two Olympians, identified as Fabian Boesch and Elias Ambuehl by the BBC, are the first athletes to be diagnosed with norovirus, which causes extreme vomiting and diarrhea. The two have been separated from the team because the virus is highly contagious.
“Everyone else is safe. We did everything we could,” a Swiss Olympic spokesperson told Reuters. “We took them away from the rest of the team and now they have to recover. ...They were taken to a single room and had no contact with the other athletes."
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More than 200 people have been confirmed to have contracted the norovirus, most of them security staff and Games personnel, according to Reuters. The norovirus was a story before the Games began, with close to 1,200 security guards withdrawing from Olympic sites due to an outbreak and replaced by 900 soldiers.
The Swiss Olympic team said that because the skiers contracted the virus several days ago, and are mostly recovered, they could still compete.
A team spokesperson said in a statement: “Please note that athletes who have had the norovirus are allowed to compete if they are in good physical health, have been tested by the Swiss medical team, take all precautionary measures and the IOC has been consulted.”