Azerbaijan’s Gymnastics Federation has announced that three of the gymnasts on their European Championships senior and junior MAG teams tested positive for Covid-19 this week. As a result, Azerbaijan withdrew from the competition entirely, since the rest of the delegation members were in close contact with the infected gymnasts. According to the release, the delegation members that tested negative will fly back to Baku and quarantine there, while the gymnasts that tested positive will have to stay in Mersin for now. All delegation members had negative tests prior to their arrival to Mersin.
It appears that at least Azerbaijan’s junior team participated in the podium training. It is also likely that gymnasts participated in training sessions before they got the positive results. It is unclear how much contact, if any, they had with other teams and whether transmission was possible between different delegations.
Last month, at the Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships in Kiev, a Bulgarian photographer tested positive at the event and had to quarantine. In addition, an Israeli delegation member tested positive after landing in Tel Aviv post-competition, which indicates a strong possibility they were infected during their stay in Kiev. This raises questions whether it was wise to proceed with holding these events in the middle of the pandemic.
Gymnasts are generally young and healthy and, if infected, are likely to have asymptomatic or mild cases of Covid-19. However, that doesn’t mean complete absence of complications. There have been studies showing that COVID-19 may result in heart conditions in young athletes, even in very mild and asymptomatic cases. For example, Meilin Sullivan, an NCAA freshman supposed to compete for Oklahoma this year will miss the season due to heart complications caused by Covid-19.
