Made 45 tests in 21 days to perform in Beijing. He lost his luggage at the airport. He was the last

The Winter Games have all sorts of stories. Some are extremely happy, like the bronze of Dawid Kubacki, others are dramatic, like the lack of the possibility of Natalia Maliszewska’s 500-meter short track. Casey Dawson is the hero of a crazy story.

He missed one race

A 21-year-old speed skater tested positive for COVID-19 in January. At first he thought he would need two negative tests in a row to go to the Chinese capital, but the rules were changed. In a similar situation as Dawson was, inter alia, Piotr lived. At that time, the secretary general of the Polish Ski Association, Jan Winkiel, informed that Żyla had to receive four negative results in a row in order to fly to Beijing. Dawson had the same procedure.

For this reason, the American missed the 5000 m start. He even wrote on Instagram: “I am sorry to inform you that I will not participate in the individual competition at the Beijing Olympics.” And yet he did not give up – he did not want to give up the 1,500 m race. As he admitted in an interview with the BBC, during the last three weeks he has performed as many as 45 PCR tests. He did his job – he was finally allowed to board the plane. He then traveled from Salt Lake City to Beijing via Atlanta and Paris. It’s almost 10,000. km covered in 44 hours!

Dawson landed in the capital 12 hours before the start of the 1500m race. Then another problem arose. – My luggage was not checked in. Fortunately, I had a spare coverall in my hand luggage, but my lives were in the suitcases, which were missing – he admitted.

“I couldn’t be happier”

Then fate smiled at him. – I was lucky that another 1,500 m competitor, the Latvian Haralds Silovs, lent me his alive – Dawson revealed. When he finally got to the rink, he finished last in his qualifying run. He had his time six seconds slower than his best record for the distance. Still, he was joyful.

“I am very happy to be finally here because I did not think I would ever come,” said the 21-year-old. “It wasn’t my best race or result, but I couldn’t be happier at the Olympics,” he added. It was his Olympic debut.

Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic movement, used to say that what counts is the participation in the games. Rarely does that fit as well as it was with Dawson.