"It was very trying, even before leaving, with tons of paperwork to fill out," notes the director of the French snowboard team Luc Faye.
The Blues, who returned home last night, had an appointment in Frankfurt (Germany) on November 21 to board a charter flight reserved for some 300 participants (athletes and staff) of the Ski and Snowboardcross World Cups.
In addition to the PCR test in an accredited laboratory less than 72 hours before departure, travelers have multiplied the administrative files, including a final one to be completed ten minutes before take-off.
"On arrival it was a science fiction film, people in white jumpsuits from head to toe," Faye describes.
Again tested (they will be daily), the Blues wait more than five hours at the airport in Beijing, then two hours in a coach, before the latter starts for a five-hour journey to their hotel in the resort. of Secret Garden, in the Zhangjiakou region, one of the three Beijing Olympics venues.
"From the moment we set foot on the plane we lived in a closed circuit until the return trip," said one of the ski cross trainers Thomas Frey.
"A repetition"
They are forbidden to leave the hotel, guarded by the police and volunteers, even to take the air.
The only exception is to go to the two tracks reserved for the World Cup in a special coach that is regularly disinfected, up to the wheels.
"I did not see the face of a single Chinese, all the locals who approached us (at the hotel, the airport) wore the combination", explains Mr. Frey, describing the sanitary bubble which is promised to the participants. games.
Bastien Midol during qualifying for the Freestyle Skiing World Cup in Solitude, Utah on February 1, 2019 TOM PENNINGTON Getty / AFP / Archives
The restrictions are unlikely to soften in just over two months: China acknowledged on Tuesday that the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 would mean additional difficulties for the organization of the Games.
On site, the daily has a few surprises in store such as fries and nuggets served for breakfast.
A first meal that stretches when the only available coffee machine breaks down.
"For them too it was a rehearsal. I hope they understood that they lacked coordination and translators", relativizes Luc Faye, evoking some hiccups on schedules and transport.
"I hope for big improvements"
On the track, the competition went off without a hitch, in front of a hundred people.
Spectators coming from abroad will not be able to go to the Olympics, but athletes can hope to be encouraged by the locals.
The French Marielle Berger-Sabbatel finished 3rd behind the Swedish Sandra Näslund and the Swiss Fanny Smith, in the ski cross test for the Beijing Games in Zhangjiakou, November 27, 2021 WANG Zhao AFP / Archives
Les Bleus signed two podiums on Saturday in skicross (Bastien Midol and Marielle Berger-Sabbatel finished third) and discovered an "easy" and not very fast track, of which they already knew the start: they had perfectly reproduced the first meters on the Tignes glacier for training.
"I was happy to see this course because I had skied a little this fall (back injury), rejoiced Alizée Baron, 7th in the race. But I hope for big improvements by February because this is no 'is not representative of our sport. I am not asking for something dangerous like in Pyeongchang in 2018 but more technical passages, a more playful track. "
"Afterwards I'm happy with this trip because it allowed us to see a lot of things on the course, to know what awaits us in February, to get as much information as possible. I want to go back there. saw the posters, the Olympic rings on the highway and on the track. I live for the Olympics, that motivated me, "she adds.
The French team left their hotel on Monday around 4 am, at night, before returning to the airport and its many checkpoints.
Alizée Baron during the presentation of the French ski cross team in Romilly-sur-Seine, October 4, 2021 Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT AFP / Archives
"On the way back we saw, in the distance, the lights of the Olympic village," said Thomas Frey.
See you in two months.
© 2021 AFP