I sympathize with these athletes: they've spent most of their young lives devoted to getting to the Olympics, but really, what did they expect ?

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lower right: Roasted head, Wuhan heritage bat

Life in the Olympic gulag: Athletes are 'crying like crazy' in hellish quarantine with miserable food where 'hope is dead' as DOZENS miss out on their events after testing positive and being carted off to isolation camps

Athletes complained of hellish conditions in Chinese isolation hotels after dozens were confined with Covid

  • Valeria Vasnetsova, a Russian biathlete, uploaded a grim picture of food she said was served three times a day for five days straight, leaving her emaciated with 'bones sticking out'

  • Natalia Maliszewska, a Polish skater, was left 'crying and crying' after being repeatedly taken to isolation over unclear Covid tests - including 'horror' wake-up by officials at 3am

  • German team boss said conditions 'unacceptable' with rooms too small, unhygienic, and Covid tests not given

Of course, it could be worse, they could have come up through the Chinese system.

Inside China’s horror Olympics’ machine where children are beaten, athletes picked in DNA selection

With a colossal population of 1.4 billion, China has a sprawling state-backed operation that puts young athletes through brutal training regiments to prepare them for the world stage.

The country approaches sport with a level of precision, planning, and ruthlessness usually reserved for the battlefield.

Although China’s demanding state sports system has attracted criticism, it has also made it one of the most successful Olympic nations since it returned to the games in 1980.

The system is rooted in the Soviet model, which saw sport as a way of attracting prestige for the Communist system.

The state sends out scouts to hunt for tens of thousands of children for full-time training at more than 2,000 government-run sports schools.

Tests for selection see kids being given brutal challenges such as press-ups, endurance running and bench presses that prioritize overall strength over specific skills. 

And the elite pupils are shipped off to China’s National Training Center – a sprawl of buildings in a Beijing suburb patrolled by armed guards.

Once enlisted in the state-backed training camps, the youngsters are expected to sacrifice everything and train for glory under the Chinese flag.