Several neighbourhoods have been closed off here after two cases of COVID-19 were identified as Chinese authorities battle to control the spread of the virus prior to the opening of the Winter Olympics on Friday (February 4). 

Cross-country skier Seyed Sattar Seyd, who was due to carry Iran’s flag at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics here, has been ruled out of the Games after contracting COVID-19.

Closed loop appears in 45 different insidethegames.biz articles in recent months, since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Beijing 2022 coined the term in the build-up to the second of the double bill of COVID-19 pandemic impacted Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Beijing 2022 organisers are expecting COVID-19 cases to continue to rise over the coming days here after 36 people linked to the Winter Olympics tested positive.

Beijing 2022 has dismissed claims that COVID-19 tests could be manipulated at next month's Winter Olympics here, insisting there will be "no room for error".

Norwegian cross-country skiers Heidi Weng and Anne Kjersti Kalvå are among several athletes that have been left with their hopes of competing at the upcoming Winter Olympics here in jeopardy after contracting COVID-19.

South Korea became the third nation to fall victim to a forfeit at the Asian Men's Handball Championship in Dammam, with their match with favourites Qatar not going ahead due to several positive COVID-19 cases in the team.

Another round of mass testing is underway here as Beijing grapples with the spread of COVID-19 prior to staging the Winter Olympics in a little more than a week’s time.

The Russian Olympic Committee’s (ROC) final preparations for Beijing 2022 have been disrupted by COVID-19 cases with Olympic medallists Nikita Tregubov and Mikhail Kolyada both testing positive before they were due to fly to the Chinese capital.

A member of Germany’s delegation has tested positive for COVID-19, becoming one of the first coronavirus cases to be identified within an Olympic team prior to the Winter Olympics here in Beijing.

Australia, South Korea and Japan all progressed to the quarter-finals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Asian Cup with group stage wins, but notably India withdrew from the tournament after being deemed unable to field a sufficient team due to several positive COVID-19 cases.

The three Federal Court judges who upheld the cancellation of Novak Djokovic’s visa ruled that Australian Immigration Minister Alex Hawke was "not irrational" to indicate the world number one’s stance on COVID-19 vaccines may result in a "heightened community transmission".

Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin has announced that all the country’s pre-Games training bases will be closed off from the outside world to mitigate the risk of athletes catching COVID-19 before the upcoming Winter Olympics in Beijing.

The Swedish cross-country skiing team have been forced to relocate a pre-Winter Olympic Games high-altitude training camp due to COVID-19 concerns.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said it is working to adjust the strict travel COVID-19 protocols in place for Beijing 2022 to give coronavirus-hit athletes a greater chance of reaching next month’s Winter Olympics.