The Nordic combined athletes Eric Frenzel and Terence Weber initially have to go into corona quarantine at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
On the other hand, follow-up tests on four other German athletes from the ice hockey team and the skeleton selection who initially tested positive gave negative results, as the German Olympic Sports Confederation announced on Friday.
The infections in the three-time Olympic champion Frenzel and his teammate Weber were found when they entered Beijing on Thursday.
Both were separated by the combined team.
The DOSB announced that there were no other cases of contact.
Overall, the number of German corona cases that were also confirmed by follow-up tests has now risen to four.
A supervisor from the DOSB delegation had previously tested positive.
Marc Heinrich
sports editor.
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Figure skater Nolan Seegert has been the first German corona case among the athletes in Beijing in the quarantine hotel since Wednesday.
With a delay, his pair skating partner Minerva Hase was also officially classified as a contact person.
She was separated from the team in the Olympic village, but is allowed to continue training individually.
Another member of the figure skating team is also considered a so-called close contact.
Anyone who contracted the virus at the Beijing Olympics will be isolated in a specially designated hotel.
Only after two negative PCR tests at least 24 hours apart can those affected leave before the end of ten days.
After this period, only a negative PCR test is required.
In Nordic combined, the series of corona cases just before the opening does not stop.
On Thursday, the positive test by top favorite Jarl Magnus Riiber from Norway, who was previously considered the contact person for Estonian podium candidate Kristjan Ilves, who was also infected, became public.
Now the German Ski Association with record world champions Frenzel and Weber is also affected.
The two are the best German combined athletes this season behind Vinzenz Geiger.
The experienced Frenzel has been more consistent this winter than he has been in a long time. In addition, the 33-year-old flag bearer from 2018 is considered an expert for major events. At the last winter games in South Korea he won two gold and one bronze. Weber won the World Cup in Ruka in November and is particularly strong on the ski jump. The first individual in Zhangjiakou will take place for the protégés of national coach Hermann Weinbuch next Wednesday.
Meanwhile, behind the German national ice hockey players are the first 24 hours in Beijing, in which they spend a lot of time on medical preparations and also had to deal with speculations that strained their nerves.
The fear that three players from their ranks would miss the start of the Winter Games due to positive corona tests upon arrival persisted for a long time in Beijing on Friday, but turned out to be unfounded in the early evening (local time).
Shortly before the official opening ceremony, the Deutsche Eishockey-Bunden (DEB) received confirmation that none of the players sent out would have to sit out the first weekend of the Olympics due to a corona infection.
The ordered PCR tests were "all negative", said a DEB spokeswoman.
She confirmed that a trio had "initial abnormalities" during the first examination immediately upon arrival at the Chinese capital's airport, which had to be "checked".
The subsequent second assessment then brought the unequivocal result: all men are healthy.
"We are happy that we have the green light and can get started," commented DEB sports director Christian Künast on the happy end of an exciting day.
The original plan was actually to "take it easy" after arriving by plane and moving into the Olympic Village, in order to mentally prepare for the upcoming mission.
The motto for all activities in the Beijing bubble, which began for the ice hockey players with an organization meeting and the cabin tour, was "safety first".
In view of the corona pandemic, which is currently also causing growing tension in China with the omicron virus variant, the team and coaches know that more than ever special precautionary measures are necessary to ensure that there are no unpleasant surprises in the sporting goals for the next two weeks of the Winter Games question.
On Friday morning, national coach Toni Söderholm asked his selection for a short practice session on the small area of the National Indoor Stadium for the first time. A quartet was missing: defenders Marcel Brandt (Straubing Tigers) and Korbinian Holzer (Adler Mannheim) were absent, as were strikers Stefan Loibl (Skelleftea AIK/Sweden) and Daniel Pietta (ERC Ingolstadt). The DEB did not initially give any reasons for this when asked.
Shortly thereafter, the DOSB reported, without specifically addressing the situation at the DEB, about the need for follow-up tests as soon as a virus infection was suspected.
"In all cases of suspected corona, we proceed in such a way that we go into the details, including names, when the results of the second tests are available (...) After all, nobody wants to publish false reports about Covid cases," said a DOSB spokesman on the procedure, which Künast expressly welcomed.
The DEB spokeswoman also announced that “another player” who was unable to travel with his colleagues after surviving a corona infection would now travel as planned “after completing all the formalities”.
He is due to join the team at the Olympic Village this Saturday.