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Three members of Australia’s skateboarding team, including a 13-year-old, have tested positive to COVID-19 after travelling to the US for an Olympic qualifying event.
11 Australian skaters and staff flew from Sydney on May 3 to California before travelling to the Dew Tour in Iowa in an effort to qualify for the Olympics.
Of the three who tested positive for the virus, two athletes are now understood to be out of the running to compete at the upcoming Tokyo games, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
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Skate Australia confirmed the first athlete tested positive prior to the event and didn’t travel to Iowa.
It’s understood the second athlete tested positive at the Dew Tour on May 16, was immediately isolated and did not compete.
The third person to test positive is understood to be a coach who was isolated immediately at the Dew Tour after testing positive on Friday.
Melbourne skater Charlotte Heath, 13, took to social media, announcing she was one of the Australian athletes who contracted the virus.
“I have to quarantine for a while now and I was really looking forward to this comp, but at least I got to travel to America and go to all the sick skateparks while I could,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
Karen Doyle, President of Skate Australia, released a statement on Sunday night confirming the news.
“Three members of the group for the PARK skateboarding discipline have tested positive,” Doyle said.
“Their conditions are being monitored daily. Other members of the travelling group for the PARK discipline remain isolated from those who have tested positive and have each returned multiple negative PCR tests.
“For those that qualify, our PARK skateboarders will not return to Australia until the conclusion of their events at the Tokyo2020 Olympic Games. We believe our medal chances are still alive across both disciplines of PARK and STREET.”
The Australian Olympic Committee said it would continue to work with Skate Australia to assist athletes heading to Tokyo.
“The AOC will continue to work with Skate Australia to assist athletes who will travel to Japan for the Games, meeting all requirements outlined in the Tokyo Games playbooks as well as any athlete who will be required to return to Australia and enter quarantine back home,” a statement released on Sunday evening said.
Dew Tour organisers released a statement early on Monday morning (AEST) saying they were happy their COVID-19 protocol plans “worked exactly how they were designed to work.”
“During a mandatory health test at Dew Tour, which is a global Olympic qualifying event for skateboarding, two members of the Australian skateboard team tested positive for the COVID-19 virus,” they said, in a statement.
“Our event’s medical staff conducted its protocol of follow up testing.
“It was then concluded that those two members needed to enter quarantine and not return to Dew Tour.”
