This was confirmed by the Norwegian Ski Federation in a press release on Monday morning.
Monsen was at the last rally on the rise for the national team in Italy when he tested positive for the first time with a rapid antigen test upon his arrival in Gardermoen on Sunday evening. The positive sample was confirmed by a PCR test later Monday.
– That wasn’t what we needed now. That’s too heavy for Arild, of course, cross-country competition director Espen Bervig tells NRK.
National Team Coach: Arild Monsen, here with Eric Valnes earlier this season.
Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB
– shock them
Monday’s plans were radically changed for the Norwegian athletes as a result of Monsen’s positive test.
At first the men would travel from the highlands of Italy’s Seiser Alm and into the lowlands to complete a difficult session. It did not happen.
For himself: Hans Christer Holland at leisurely rowing up a hill near the Athletes’ Hotel to Norway at Caesar Alm.
Photo: Morten Stenberg/NRK
Instead, most people quietly trained for themselves in the heights near the hotel. An on-site NRK reporter recounts the wonderful conditions, clear skies on a day they were training hard. The vast majority went alone, while runners ran some clouds in the sun.
It’s clearly a shock to them, says Bjerwig of the athletes’ reaction when they received a message about the injury to the training rig.
On the way to the hotel: After the session ended at 12:00 on Monday, some Norwegian athletes returned to the hotel.
Photo: Morten Stenberg/NRK
– But there is more peace in the ranks of the army after we were tested yesterday and today. Everyone else has tested negative so far. But that is the biggest fear now.
Monsen is asymptomatic, but now normally follows Norwegian quarantine rules. Bjervig, the cross-country manager, says they don’t have a solid theory yet on where Monsen might have been hit, but they are going all the way to find out. Bjervig does not rule out that athletes can be defined as close contact by a coach.
– In that sense, you’re shocked
But so far fellow coach Eric Meyer-Nasoom has only been defined as a close contact. The two stayed in the rooms together.
Nossum writes in a short message to NRK that all athletes now feel sorry for Monson.
In Quarantine: Eric Mer-Nosom and Arild Monsen have both been affected by the latter’s positive corona test. Here she is pictured last season.
Photo: Berit Roald / NTB
He asserts that it came as a shock to the Norwegian athletes.
“We went between being in the room and going out for training. We were alone in the dining room. We used face masks and disposable gloves outside our room. In that sense, you are shocked,” Nasum writes.
Go to Beijing in three days
In fact, the national fast team coach was supposed to get on the plane to Beijing on Thursday in three days. It is already clear that he will not invent it. The next flight with the Olympic Summit departs from Norway on January 31.
Cross Country Manager: Espen Bervig, pictured earlier this season.
Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB
Bjervig says the situation is so new that they have to check with Norwegian and Chinese authorities, not least the Olympic summit, before making any decision on whether to allow Monsen to be sent to China.
– We don’t go to China with any doubt. I don’t have all the answers to this right now, but it’s not particularly timely. For him, the Olympics were hanging by a thread. Because of all the tests and how the Chinese measure the values of the virus in the body. We don’t take risks at all. If we had any doubts, he wouldn’t go to the Olympics.
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