“You get off the plane and the people handling your luggage, full PPE. Goggles, mask, gloves, boots, the whole nine yards,” added Mazdzer, who is competing in his fourth Games and took silver in Pyeongchang. “Now, it’s totally normal. Like it’s absolutely normal that you would have hundreds of people in PPE all around you.”

Once inside the “closed loop,” layers of fencing separate people from the outside world, while guards stand by to ensure that no one leaves or enters without authorization.

Transport for visitors, including high speed trains with separate carriages and entrances and exits, ferries those inside the bubble from facility to facility.

Given the restrictions, public spaces at venues are largely empty, supporters and visitors absent. Athletes’ friends and family members have stayed home. The Chinese support staff are required to take Covid tests to enter the bubble and then quarantine for 21 days after they leave, reducing the risk of possible spread even further.