Canadian Olympic athletes on tenterhooks trying to avoid COVID ahead of Beijing

Faster. Higher. Stronger. Together – and just don't test positive. 

That's the rallying cry for thousands of athletes as they prepare for the Olympics.

With less than a month to go until the Feb. 4 opening ceremony at the Beijing Games, and with the clock ticking on the Canadian Olympic Committee's Jan. 23 deadline to announce the athletes who will be competing, the only thing on the minds of most athletes is staying clear of the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19.

"There's this invisible minefield laid out in front of you over the next few weeks, as you try to dodge COVID and not become positive in the next couple of weeks, while trying to train for one of the biggest moments of your life," said Canadian figure skater Eric Radford. 

"Preparing for any competition, and especially the Olympics is difficult enough. It's one of the most stressful times of an athlete's life."

WATCH | The sports storylines you should know for Beijing:

Radford, along with pairs partner Vanessa James, revealed they are recovering from COVID-19. James tested positive on Dec. 23, while Radford got his positive test on Dec. 26. The two were back on the ice for the first time on Monday practising for the national championship and Olympic trials, which begins Thursday in Ottawa. 

"I think every athlete is probably thinking and feeling the same thing right now," Radford said. "There are already stories rolling in about COVID dashing Olympic dreams. I hope athletes are being as vigilant as they possibly can over these next couple of weeks."

James and Radford are still undecided about whether they'll even compete this weekend, saying they'll make a decision on Thursday. 

Athletes across Canada and around the world are in the position of trying to decide whether to keep competing and training and risk exposing themselves to COVID-19, or protecting themselves by essentially doing nothing in the lead-up to the biggest athletic event of their lives. 

Should an athlete test positive for COVID-19 now, less than then 30 days before the start of competition, they must provide three negative PCR tests and then submit that documentation to the Beijing Olympic committee. The organizing committee then has to clear that athlete to be fit to travel, and the International Olympic Committee has promised case-by-case assessments of athletes who recover after testing positive for COVID-19.

There are then two more negative PCR tests required to be able to get on the flight to Beijing, one 96 and one 72 hours from departure. 

Last week in an interview with CBC Sports, David Shoemaker, CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee expressed concern about keeping athletes safe over the next month leading up to the first charter flight set for Jan. 26.

"The real challenge for us over the next 30 days is how do we make sure that Canadian participants can get to Beijing without contracting the virus and therefore become able to test negative to get into that scenario," he said.