- It is extremely cold at some of the Winter Olympic venues in Beijing.
- One cross-country skier was so cold on Saturday that she came close to collapsing at the finish line.
- With windchill, temperatures at some venues feel as low as minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit, one coach said.
Sweden's cross-country ski team is to ask the International Ski Federation (FIS) to start races at the Beijing Winter Olympics earlier in the day in order protect athletes from the freezing temperatures.
It comes after Swedish athlete Frida Karlsson was seen shaking and close to collapse at the end of the women's 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon on Saturday.
Under FIS rules, competitions are stopped from taking place when temperatures are below minus-four degrees Fahrenheit.
When Karlsson competed on Saturday, temperatures in the mountains of Zhangjiakou were around 8 degrees Fahrenheit, however with windchill, it felt closer to around minus-31 degrees Fahrenheit, Swedish team boss Anders Bystroem told reporters
"We have the cold limits but I do not know if they also measure the wind effect," the Bystroem said Sunday, per Reuters.
"If FIS says it's minus-17 degrees [Celsius, around 1 degree Fahrenheit] and it's windy, and it's minus-35 degrees [minus-31 degrees Fahrenheit] with the windchill, what do you do then?"
Bystroem added holding races later in the day to allow European television audiences to watch live was detrimental to the performance of the athletes.
"Yesterday the competition started at 4:00 p.m. and Frida Karlsson was completely destroyed by the cold. It's not good that the sprint starts even later," he said.
"We have talked in the team about making a request [to race earlier] during the day if it's possible, at the same time I don't think it will be possible to change the time because of the Olympic schedule."
The cold isn't the only thing that participants in Beijing have been complaining about.
Athletes at the games who have tested positive for COVID-19 have also been less than satisfied with the conditions at a quarantine hotel.
Russian biathlon competitor Valeria Vasnetsova posted on Instagram complaining about the quality of the food, while German Nordic combined skier Eric Frenzel called conditions at the isolation hotel "unreasonable."
"My stomach hurts, I'm very pale and I have huge black circles around my eyes," Vasnetsova said alongside a photo of a meal that she said she had been served for five straight days — plain pasta, an orange sauce, meat, and potatoes, with no greens.
"I want all this to end. I cry every day. I'm very tired."
Christophe Dubi, the games' executive director, said the conditions were "not good enough" and that the IOC had been working to improve them.
"It is very unfortunate that it affected an athlete, it has been addressed and let's be very thorough in the future to make sure that internet conditions, food and size of the rooms, equipment for training and everything is perfect for the athletes who do suffer from the conditions," he said.