Emotional rollercoaster of US Virgin Islands’ only athlete at Beijing Games

Katie Tannenbaum was the only athlete heading to the Winter Olympics this year from the US Virgin Islands, and the first they had sent since 2014. She had been fighting to reach the Winter Olympics for some time. In 2018, despite having reached the qualifying standard, the US Virgin Islands were not given a place in the Pyeongchang skeleton competition. An appeal to the court of arbitration for sport failed.

Having finally secured a place for the 2022 Games, once she was in Beijing, 36-year-old Tannenbaum tested positive for Covid and had to go into isolation. Her dream of being flagbearer for the group of Caribbean islands with a population of around 87,000 was over. With their only athlete absent, and their opening ceremony uniforms failing to arrive on time, the US Virgin Islands National Olympic Committee decided they would not attend the opening ceremony at all.

“I had remained tough through the news that I had Covid,” Tannenbaum told the Guardian via email, “but the thought of the Virgin Islands having no representation at the opening ceremonies made me emotional. I insisted that if I couldn’t be there someone had to be.”

So the team improvised uniforms, and got a volunteer to carry the flag. And then just before they entered the arena, in a moment captured for social media, they video-called Tannenbaum so that she could be a part of it. “I was watching excitedly on TV from my isolation room when they called me just as they were about to walk out. My coach told me that this moment was for me, that we wouldn’t be at the Games without me, and thanked me for getting us here. I was in tears.”

Tannenbaum, who started her sliding career in 2011, was freed from Covid isolation in time to compete – but barely had an