The International Skating Union, in Communication no. 2380 released on March 04, confirmed that there would be no alternative Olympic qualifying procedure. The names of 194 athletes from 50 countries (at last count) have been entered for the competition. A small handful have withdrawn, only for their names to be replaced by that of substitutes.

 JAPANESE TRANSLATION OF RELEVANT PARTS OF ISU COMMUNICATION NO. 2380 part 1  part 2

ISU also stated in the same communication that the ISU Congress (meeting/conference of all members) that was scheduled to be held May 31-June 4 2021 in Phuket, Thailand, has been cancelled, stating that it could not be held or postponed because ISU "cannot reasonably count on a sufficient improvement of the pandemic situation". On Tuesday, March 9, Sweden's health agency statistics reported 11,014 cases since Friday, March 5 -- that's over 11,000 cases in just five days. For the same time period, Thailand had under 350 cases. At the time of writing, there are under 600 registered active cases.

ISU have also released a statement asserting that the speed skating bubble formed in Heerenveen, Netherlands, for the following competitions: ISU European Championships (16-17 January 2021), ISU World Cup 1 (22–24 January 2021), ISU World Cup 2 (29–31 January 2021) ISU World Championships (11 –14 February 2021) was successful with no positive COVID tests returned over the course of the event. However, we would like to point out that their exit protocol relied heavily on self-reporting. Procedure for following up after exiting the bubble was:

• If a person from a team presents Covid-19 symptoms or if his/her test is positive within 14 days of the end of their participation in the ISU Events in Heerenveen, he/she must immediately notify his/her designated team official (who will, in turn, notify the ISU whom will then inform other Teams).

The event in Los Angeles in January 2021 that we referenced in the petition also returned absolutely no positive tests during the course of the event. However, strict follow-up procedures revealed that the eventual infection rate was 42.8%.

We have also compared the speed skating bubble with the figure skating bubble, and there are a few significant differences, the most notable being that:

1. speed skaters were required to arrive earlier than figure skaters; 
2. there was no loophole to allow positive PCR-tested people into the bubble even if they return a negative PCR-test afterwards; 
3. anybody with serious symptoms was required to quarantine irrespective of PCR test; 
4. and of course, the speed skating documents refer to a “Waiver of the ISU Events” while the figure skating documents specifically reference a COVID-specific liability waiver for all attendees to sign. 

It’s worth noting that was not the only way for speed skating federations to qualify for the Olympics, as well.

There are also significant differences in requirements for people in Level 3 of the bubble (who will interact with Levels 1 and 2: skaters, teams and officials) since that depends heavily on the rules and regulations of the host country. Local staff who interact with Levels 1 and 2 bubbles are not required to live at the venue for the duration of the event and are therefore under no obligation to follow ISU’s guidelines while outside the bubble. 

It also appears that ISU will do nothing to ensure adequate supply of masks to all attendees at the event. They specify the recommended type of mask, as well as what advertising is allowed on it, and state that all attendees are responsible for having sufficient face masks for the duration of the event.

The speed skating documents also refer to specific sanctions for non-compliance: "Sanctions can range from a simple call to order, through a temporary withdrawal of accreditation, to the permanent withdrawal of a person’s accreditation on the ISU Events. For any serious breach, the ISU may take other possible sanctions." Such details are absent from the guidelines for the Figure Skating World Championships. The word sanction does not appear in the document for Stockholm 2021 at all. 

ISU have expressed no intention of tightening their protocols by including daily testing or a quarantine period long enough for COVID infections acquired during travel to become detectable by PCR tests before entering the bubble. They have also stated there will not be any other way for skaters to earn multiple Olympic spots. 

COVID numbers in Sweden are rising rapidly, doubling over three weeks, and experts calling this their third wave, and it is under these circumstances that ISU intends to hold a large scale international sporting event. Sweden currently has an entry recommendation of seven-day quarantine for all foreign travelers, but this competition does not follow that recommendation.

We call on ISU yet again to not hold the sole primary Olympic qualifier competition in the middle of a third wave in Stockholm, Sweden, with the current weak COVID-safety protocols. We urge them to implement truly safe protocols.

We ask them to postpone the event until all attendees have access to vaccination if their protocols cannot be amended to be truly safe.

We ask them to cancel the event if postponement and true COVID-safety are both impossible.

For resources and frequent updates, please follow @NoQuarNoWorlds on Twitter, and @NoQuarantineNoWorlds on Instagram.

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