Muristek
Emotional rollercoaster of US Virgin Islands’ only athlete at Beijing Games
Covid prevented skeleton racer Katie Tannenbaum attending the opening ceremony or training and she finished last, but she has kept on smiling
Katie Tannenbaum was the only athlete heading to the Winter Olympics this year from the US Virgin Islands, and the first they had sent since 2014. She had been fighting to reach the Winter Olympics for some time. In 2018, despite having reached the qualifying standard, the US Virgin Islands were not given a place in the Pyeongchang skeleton competition. An appeal to the court of arbitration for sport failed.
Having finally secured a place for the 2022 Games, once she was in Beijing, 36-year-old Tannenbaum tested positive for Covid and had to go into isolation. Her dream of being flagbearer for the group of Caribbean islands with a population of around 87,000 was over. With their only athlete absent, and their opening ceremony uniforms failing to arrive on time, the US Virgin Islands National Olympic Committee decided they would not attend the opening ceremony at all.
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