The French delegation were competing in the 7th World Military Games in Wuhan - just 20 days before the first Chinese person officially became ill with coronavirus - with 402 athletes present, along with 10,000 other athletes from all over the world
French athletes believe they caught
coronavirus at the World Military Games in Wuhan in October,
20 days before the first recorded case in China.
It comes after it was revealed that Frenchman Amirouche Hammar, 43, had been infected with COVID-19 outside Paris as early as December.
The hospital where Hammar was treated for chest pains has since re-tested samples and found the fishmonger was positive for the virus on December 27. It is not known where he caught the virus, although his wife works close to Charles de Gaulle airport.
A number of French athletes who were at the World Military Games from October 18 to 27 have since described coming down with severe flu-like symptoms while at the event.
Elodie Clouvel, a world champion modern pentathlete, was asked on March 25 whether she was anxious about spending the summer in Japan for the Olympics. She told Loire 7: 'No because I think that with Velentin (Belaud, her partner, also a pentathlete) we have already had the coronavirus, well the COVID-19.'
The 31-year-old went on: '
We were in Wuhan for the World Military Games at the end of October. And afterwards, we all fell ill. Valentin missed three days of training. Me, I was sick too. [...] I had things I had never had before. We weren't particularly worried because no one was talking about it yet.'
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