Australian Olympic Committee unsure if skier Katie Parker will test negative for COVID-19 on arrival in Beijing

The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) says it is crossing its fingers alpine skier Katie Parker will return a negative COVID-19 test when she arrives in Beijing on Tuesday.

However, AOC's chief medical officer Peter Brown said there was a «reasonable probability» Parker would test positive upon arrival.

Parker was forced out of the women's giant slalom on Monday because she had returned «ongoing» positive COVID-19 tests since catching coronavirus in late January.

The 23-year-old — who is set to make her Olympic debut in Beijing — has since returned four negative results, but the increased sensitivity of the testing being used at the Olympics could still see her return a positive result at the airport.

All entrants into Beijing for this year's Winter Olympics are tested at the airport and must isolate in their hotel until they receive a negative result.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has a lower threshold by which people can test positive than Australia or the United States, meaning some people have returned positive tests at the airport.

If a positive test result is returned, two further tests must be taken — a confirmatory test and an additional test.

Should Parker test positive at the airport, the AOC said it was imperative those additional tests were taken as quickly as possible to give her every chance of being free to compete in Wednesday's slalom event.

Should either of those following tests be positive, Dr Brown said the AOC would «bring in the medical expert panel as soon as possible».

The IOC's medical expert panel (MEP) can then adjudicate on cases where an athlete continues to test positive but is no longer infectious.

That was the case with Australian curler Tahli Gill, who has been on the threshold of