Cross country-Swedish skiers play it safe with early Olympic hotel lockdown

TESERO, Italy, Feb 4 : Sweden's national cross-country ski team is taking no chances ahead of the Milano Cortina Olympics, isolating athletes who arrived from different locations and placing their hotel under isolation in the coming days as they prepare for the Games.

For the next two days the athletes will be kept separate and only the hotel owners and members of the Swedish team will be allowed to enter, Swedish team doctor Rickard Noberius told Reuters, as a precaution after athletes and staff arrived from different parts of the world.

"Everyone will live in separate rooms for the next 48 hours as most symptoms will be shown by then," he said, adding that it was just a safety measure and not due to suspected illnesses among the skiers. 

He added that the skiers took the new measures in good spirit and that he hoped everything would be in order shortly, despite some couples on the team not being able to share rooms immediately.

"They are all on board and will move to ordinary arrangements as soon as the needed time has passed," he added.

The first Olympic competition for the cross-country athletes will be women's skiathlon on February 7.