Omicron forces student winter games to cancel

Some 1,600 from 50 countries were due to attend the Lucerne 2021 Winter Universiade next month. www.winteruniversiade2021.ch

The new variant Covid-19 virus, called Omicron, has forced the cancellation of a student winter games event, just 12 days before it was due to begin in Switzerland.

The Lucerne 2021 Winter UniversiadeExternal link, the largest winter sports event next to the Winter Olympic Games, said on MondayExternal link that it could no longer start on December 11.

This is the second year in a row that the coronavirus pandemic has halted the 30^th edition of the event, which was due to attract 1,600 student competitors from 50 countries.

Having been postponed from last year, the Winter Universiade was set to run from December 11-21 in central and eastern Switzerland. But the latest travel restrictions, announced last week, have again made it impractical to stage an event that draws competitors, spectators and media from multiple countries.

Switzerland had selected a squad of 43 students to take part in the sporting event.

“We are devastated and very sorry that we will not be able to welcome the athletes from all over the world, who have been preparing intensively for their competitions,” said event President Guido Graf.

The Winter Universiade is organized by the International University Sports Federation FISU and has been staging winter and summer games every other year since 1959.

Switzerland is one of many countries that have banned flights to southern Africa and imposed quarantine restrictions for people entering from a growing list of other countries. This follows the discovery of the Omicron Covid variant that has caused grave concerns because of the high number of mutations it displays.

On Sunday, Switzerland reported its first suspected case of a person infected with the Omicron variant.