Finnish Olympic delegation prioritizes health measures

Finnish Olympic participants will consistently use face masks during their flights to France and local travel in Paris, said Maarit Valtonen, the chief doctor of the Finnish delegation to Paris 2024, reported Xinhua.

In an interview published on Wednesday by USU, the news agency of major regional newspapers in Finland, Valtonen said that the use of masks had been considered during the travel to PyeongChang 2018 but was abandoned as mask usage was not yet common and could have triggered unnecessary concern among outsiders.

"However, there were many infections among Finnish participants in PyeongChang, and we established that most of them were brought from Finland or caught while airborne. We could have protected against them," Valtonen said.

"In Beijing 2022, there were some flu cases, but with isolation and the use of masks, none of those infections spread."

Valtonen, a long-time medical expert in sports, emphasized that COVID-19 marked a change in the level of cooperation between national medical staff. "Now we had a common adversary. Athlete health is a sector that involves no competition," she said.

"While identifying a virus might not be crucial for a normal person, the case is different for athletes," Valtonen noted. "Some viruses may cause a heart infection, while others are less likely. Thus, in certain situations, we can assess whether the athlete can participate or not," she said.