Stunning positive COVID-19 test for KC gymnast in Tokyo hints at ‘freaky’ scene ahead
Before U.S. Olympic gymnastics alternate Kara Eaker on Sunday became the first American athlete known to have tested positive for COVID-19 in Japan, the recent Grain Valley High graduate had long since been vaccinated.
And she had tested negative repeatedly before flying overseas, and again since landing last week off a flight on which the gymnasts each had three seats to themselves.
Along the way, she had embraced “all the precautions you could ever imagine,” said Al Fong, her coach at GAGE Center in Blue Springs.
Among what he called “all the hoops we had to jump through,” he added, the gymnasts had to sit six feet apart during meals while all faced in one direction and wore gloves even to pick up their food and drinks. Like the other three replacement athletes, Fong said, Eaker sat apart from the front-line six in the meal area and trained in a separate group. All wore masks while distanced from the others on the team bus. They had their temperatures taken about any time they changed venues and were tested, tested, tested and tested, Fong said.
Moreover, the delegation was not allowed outside the hotel grounds, as monitored and recorded by Japanese hosts that Fong likened to babysitters. And the girls were buffered from other hotel guests via their own designated pathways through the hotel.
So no wonder all concerned felt blindsided, as Fong called it, and devastated, as his wife and fellow coach Armine Barutyan put it.
“She’s in that 1% category,” he said, referring to the small percentage of those vaccinated for the virus who subsequently test positive.
With that comes a few things he wants you to know.
“If anybody gets the notion that Kara was careless, or any part of our delegation was careless, that’s just not true,” the coach of multiple Olympians said from Japan on Monday evening Central Time (Tuesday morning there). “Wherever this came from, who knows?”
Moreover, he reports that even in quarantine now her spirits are good.
“She’s very disappointed, as you can imagine, but she’s a very intelligent girl and very mature girl,” he said. “She understands the reality of the situation and is making the best of it and holding up a brave face.”
In fact, physically she is feeling 100 percent and has displayed no symptoms, which is part of why they had hopes the other day that this was all about a false positive:
Eaker first tested positive two days after they arrived, he said, but was tested again soon thereafter and was negative. All exhaled.
But the next day she tested positive again … and again … and again.
Also in quarantine now is GAGE teammate Leanne Wong, another alternate. Eaker and Wong, who is not vaccinated, were roommates for one night, Fong said, constituting close contact that led to the quarantine. They were separated after the first time Eaker tested positive, but Wong has not tested positive.
Each had been training tremendously, Fong said, gaining valuable experience and, even at distance, enjoying the camaraderie of being part of the team led by Simone Biles.
Now, the starting six have moved to another hotel close to the Olympic Village while the four alternates remain where they were.
In the case of Eaker and Wong, each is confined to her own hotel room until they leave Japan … and the spectator-free Games that Fong says will come with “zero experiences that people are usually used to when they go to an Olympics.”
It’s a particularly dreary situation to imagine for the two local girls.
Neither can leave her room. Meals are brought to a table by the door, where they are to wait a moment after a knock before they are supposed to open it and bring in the food.
Meanwhile, perhaps they can move mattresses around and stretch and exercise some in their room. But otherwise Fong figures they are reading some and watching Japanese TV and a lot of Netflix.
“A little bit of everything,” Barutyan lamented, “but it’s really nothing.”
Pending further testing, Eaker will have to stay in those circumstances until July 28, when she tentatively is scheduled to fly back with Fong. If Wong continues to test negatively, Fong said, she will fly back with Barutyan on Saturday.
The only apparent time Eaker may leave the room would be to change hotels, which initially was believed to be required at the insistence of Japanese health officials.
“It’s not the USOC; it’s not (USA Gymnastics); it’s the Japanese health department,” Fong said. “It’s their house, their rules. We can’t supersede what they do. All we can do is ask permission.”
Since Fong and Barutyan would not have been allowed to accompany her to what he called “a strange hotel where she doesn’t know anybody,” they have, in fact, appealed to officials to allow her to stay. They believe they will prevail.
Meanwhile, they can only hope Japan will prevail against the onslaught of COVID.
It’s an all the more worrisome proposition given that Eaker was vaccinated and evidently followed all protocols strictly.
“All I know is it’s here in Japan at the Olympics,” Fong said, later adding, “This is only the beginning. As surprising as it was for Kara to come up positive, there are going to be more cases like that when the bulk of the athletes start streaming in.
“They were already having trouble keeping up … and when the onslaught of all the other people come in, they will not be able to handle it. It’s going to be freaky.”
Added Barutyan: “It’s great, yes, to continue with the Games. But these are the consequences. It’s just really disappointing, really sad.”
This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 10:50 PM with the headline "Stunning positive COVID-19 test for KC gymnast in Tokyo hints at ‘freaky’ scene ahead."