Recent positive COVID-19 tests have James, Radford unsure if they’ll skate at Olympic trials

Recent positive COVID-19 tests could keep Vanessa James and Eric Radford out of Canadian figure skating’s Olympic trials this week.

Canada’s top-ranked pair team this season revealed on a conference call that they’d tested positive within three days of each other over the Christmas break.

James tested positive on Dec. 23, while Radford’s positive test came on Boxing Day.

Radford said that preparing for the Olympics is tough enough on athletes, but now they’re also faced with an “invisible minefield” of having to avoid COVID-19 amid the easily transmissible Omicron variant.

A positive test at the Canadian championships could keep an athlete from Beijing based on the time crunch around required pre-travel tests.

Skate Canada isn’t requiring athletes to show proof of a negative test to compete this week.

James, from Toronto, and Radford, from Balmertown, Ont., say that if they’re unable to compete this week, they’re hopeful they could still be named to Canada’s Olympic team for Beijing based on results this season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2021.