'Prison-like conditions': German athletes' body blasts Olympics quarantine hotels

Germany's athlete body has described as "prison-like" the conditions faced by competitors in quarantine at the Tokyo Olympics.

Athleten Deutschland said that athletes had a lack of fresh air in quarantine hotels while they also had to clean sweaty kit in bathroom sinks.

Athletes and staff who have tested COVID positive or are contact-traced are forced to isolate in different accommodation from their teams in an effort to contain the virus spread in Tokyo.

But conditions have been criticised, with Candy Jacobs, a Dutch skateboarder who was quarantined last week, labelling them "inhumane".

"It... appears grotesque that athletes who test positive have to spend their quarantine in prison-like conditions, while IOC members stay in expensive luxury hotels and are provided with high daily allowances," said Maximilian Klein, Athleten Deutschland's representative for international sport policy.

"The food supply is neither rich nor balanced and does not meet the specific nutritional requirements of high-performance athletes.

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"Athletes who have resumed training activities in their rooms have to clean their sweaty clothes in the sink, which hardly dry afterwards.

"They feel left alone, having to obtain a lot of information on their own."

In response, the International Olympic Committee had said the conditions were improving in the Japanese capital.

Tokyo Games spokesperson Masa Takaya said: "We are trying to implement a more flexible approach to accommodate these positive cases.

"We would like to extend our sincere sympathies to them. It must be a heart-wrenching feeling (to test positive at the Olympics)."

With the Olympics now half-way through action in Tokyo, there have been a total of 241 Games-related infections since 1 July, although not all of these are Olympic competitors. There were 21 new cases recorded on Saturday.

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