Registered: Oct 2019
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Sofia Mabergs tested positive. There's still time, so she's still hopeful that she can compete.

https://www.svt.se/sport/curling/co...-lag-hasselborg

Oskar Eriksson and Almida de Val are in Beijing right now, but without coach Ali Kreviazuk, who tested positive.

https://www.svt.se/sport/curling/curling-14

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Registered: Feb 2018
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Given how infectious Omicron is I am amazed Sofia's team mates haven't caught it too - especially during sweeping.

Hopefully its a false positive or a mistake and her next tests will show up negative. But when I tested positive it took 10 days before I even had a negative lateral flow/antigen test. A PCR can take even longer to show negative.

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Tahli Gill apparently tested positive after arriving in China, but went into isolation and was able to play after testing negative since.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01...covid/100793106

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At least one source says Sofia Mabergs has since tested negative.

https://twitter.com/dplus_sportSE/s...176952485392384

//edit: it's hard to tell with face masks and long sleeves, but I'm 100% sure that I see McManus, Knochenhauer, Hasselborg, and Middaugh in the stands today. I don't see Mabergs. I'm 80% sure that the fourth woman with them is their alternate Heldin.

https://imgur.com/0GEobFO

Compare with https://www.instagram.com/p/CZe37f3MZaU/

Last edited by curlingclips on 02-05-22 at 05:57AM

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Tahli Gill tested positive, so they withdraw from competition. Last 2 games (SUI, CAN) forfeited.

https://7news.com.au/sport/winter-o...ijing-c-5585605

They're winless so far, so the forfeit doesn't change the standing, but it does mean that some teams only play 8 round robin games instead of 9.

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This is where the overly stringent Chinese rules mess things up. PCR is good for finding viral DNA but it can’t tell you if it’s viably infectious or if it’s been inactivated by a coating of antibodies or shredded by T cells. Any other country’s medical rules would say she isn’t infectious now and is no threat to anyone.

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quote:

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Originally posted by curlingclips
Tahli Gill tested positive, so they withdraw from competition. Last 2 games (SUI, CAN) forfeited.

https://7news.com.au/sport/winter-o...ijing-c-5585605

They're winless so far, so the forfeit doesn't change the standing, but it does mean that some teams only play 8 round robin games instead of 9.

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Registered: Apr 2016
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She caught it a week or two ago before they left Australia. She managed to recover and get the required negative tests before they left, then continued to test negative while there until today.

It’s been known for two years now that recovered, non-infectious people can continue to pop positive tests for as long as several months after the infection as the PCR finds dead virus just as easily as it finds live virus, This is most certainly what happened here. The Chinese rules do not allow for this, however,

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Unfortunate situation with the Aussies but Heroux is being overly dramatic about it. They are 0-7 and have 2 games left. You couldn’t script less of an impact on the rest of the competition. Canada gets a forfeit win, though slim chance that game was ever in doubt.

The testing in China is what it is. Could take the NFL approach and pretend COVID doesn’t exist, or you can diligently test everyone multiple times and you’ll end up sending some otherwise healthy athletes home.

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The last team Australia played was Italy. What would happen if one of them tested positive but they still advanced to the medal round? Would the team they were scheduled to face get a bye to the gold medal game, or would the fifth place team be moved up to fill out the medal round?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Martym
Makes you wonder how and where she caught it and whether it might have been passed onto other curlers.

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Devin Heroux reported the Homan and Morris had no recent direct contact with either Australian player.

Two questions I have: will the authorities now consider everyone they played against on the ice a close contact and want to put them into some sort of additional protocol? I don’t think it’d be full isolation and not being able to compete further, but their movements could be limited and they may have to do additional testing. This is what’s been happening to Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Lavelle E. Neal who was unlucky enough to be sitting in front of someone on his plane into Beijing who tested positive upon arrival, and so they deemed him a close contact and gave him all these extra rules he has to follow.

The other question now is given what’s happened here, will Sweden dare to try to have Sofia Mabergs play even if she does test negative again before Wednesday, now they’ve seen what’s happened with Australia today.

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AFAIK, even if curling team is down to three players, they can still take to the ice as a three player team, with two of those three players throwing extra stones.

So is there any reason why a mixed doubles team can't just play with a single player throwing all the stones?

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quote:

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Originally posted by hailstone
So is there any reason why a mixed doubles team can't just play with a single player throwing all the stones?

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First of all, it's highly unfortunate that Tahli tested positive (again). Despite Australia's record, I was impressed with her.

Being American, this does have an impact on their medal round chances slim as they may be because it gives Switzerland an automatic win (can't presume they beat Australia. Been underperforming the whole tournament).

I assume Morris and Homan will be tested because despite the fact they didn't play and he said they haven't had any contact with Tahli, he still played teams that played Australia, so yeah this is a bit of a mess.

I think finishing 5th now is of paramount importance in case one of the Top 4 pull out. You can't just give a team a bye in the Olympic semifinal.

This is a novel idea that will never be adopted, but why not have the 5th place team play the other 3 medal round teams after round-robin play? I know they got rid of the tiebreaker games, but if you did this and one of them withdrew, you could count that and some teams are playing three times in 24 hours, anyway.

First and foremost, let's get Tahli back to Australia safely. I wish her a full and speedy recovery.

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Breaking news from Colleen Jones is that the Australians are in the arena right now ready to play against Switzerland.

https://twitter.com/cbccolleenjones...195471893159937

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Well, something must have happened, as I'm watching Australia play Switzerland right now. The announcer isn't even mentioning anything COVID related.

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There is an appeals process that the Australians used. It went to a medical review board, and they agreed that Tahli likely wasn’t infectious, since her COVID case was a month ago. They won the appeal and Australia was allowed to play their last two round robin games by putting them into the “close contact” protocol rather than kicking them out outright. Scientific sense prevailed over blanket bureaucracy rules.

And then they went out and notched a pair of victories over Switzerland and Canada, with the latter win really mucking up the top of the standings.

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Well that positive test drama seemed to have worked wonders for Australia. I assumed they had caught it in Beijing rather that it being an overhang from a previous infection which triggered a marginal positive test.

They have beaten the reigning Olympic gold and silver medallists back to back - their win over Canada must be one of the biggest shocks in international curling history.

Dean and Tahli are just so charming and engaging - hope to see them back at Milan 2026.

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Breaking news from Sofia Mabergs’ Instagram feed: she’s on a flight and on her way to Beijing.

Maybe Sweden should preemptively appeal to the review board for her, or at least get Australia’s notes on how they won theirs.

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Poor Keegan Messing had to go through four tests just to board his flight to Beijing.

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As reported earlier, Sofia Mabergs is now in Beijing.

She's hanging out with Sara McManus in this photo.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/s...93954365927640/

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