"Staying safe from COVID-19" key to reach Beijing 2022 for curlers

BEIJING, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- In the final days of their preparations for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Canada's three curling teams were trying their best to stay safe before leaving for China's capital city.

The men's, women's and mixed doubles' teams were each renting houses at opposite ends of Canada in order to avoid being infected by COVID-19.

"We're isolating together as a team, not going outside of our bubble and trying to find every way possible to avoid coming into contact with anybody else," women's skip Jennifer Jones, 47, said.

Her team members had shut themselves away 45 minutes' drive outside Toronto, Ontario. "The main focus is not getting sick," Jones said. "We're just training, hanging out and getting very excited to go."

Mixed doubles pair John Morris and Rachel Homan were isolating in remote Canmore, Alberta, since mid-January and braving sub-zero temperatures to go ice fishing for their own dinner.

"Isolation can have an effect on your psyche and we want to make sure we're staying in a positive frame of mind," Morris said. "We're fortunate to be doing this in Canmore because it allows us to get out rather than being cooped up inside."

On the men's team, skip Brad Gushue and third Mark Nichols, who are appearing at an Olympic Games for the first time in 16 years, were isolating themselves in a Vancouver rental for weeks with teammates.

"There's a grocery store and all that we need within five minutes, but we've done everything there in the house now," Gushue said. "We need to test negative or we can't go."

For British curler Vicky Wright, it meant a dilemma in the days after her team booked their last-minute ticket to Beijing 2022 in December - to safeguard her Olympic debut that she has curled 17 years for, or stay longer in her job as a ward nurse to fight against COVID-19.

"Just before Christmas when things started to get real with the Olympics I was thinking, 'Maybe I should stop work earlier'," Wright said. She and her colleagues were working in a 32-bed COVID-19 unit with full personal protective equipment.

"But then I thought, 'I've gone two years without getting COVID, if I work for an extra two weeks, is it really going to make a difference?'," She said. "It was my choice - I love caring for people and it keeps me really grounded as a person."

Wright worked her final shift at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert, Scotland on January 6, before joining her teammates - including Sochi 2014 bronze medallist Eve Muirhead - for a pre-Games training camp.

As last year drew towards a close, Wright's Olympic dream was still hanging by a thread. After six wins and two losses at the Olympic Qualification Event in the Netherlands to qualify directly for Beijing, the team achieved their objective.

"I'm getting really excited for it and the butterflies are starting to come. I just hope that when we step on to the ice, after all the preparations, we treat it like a normal championship and the nerves will go away."