Canadian national champion Messing finished ninth in the men’s short programme yesterday, one day after arriving here in the Chinese capital.

Messing had been forced into quarantine in the build-up to the Games and recorded four consecutive negative COVD-19 tests, which allowed him to travel.

"The journey here was crazy," Messing said.

"I am used to long trips, but this kind of takes the cake.

"We went Vancouver-Montreal-Frankfurt-Milan to here.

"To start in Vancouver and to go over to the Atlantic Ocean instead of the Pacific definitely felt like we were going in the wrong direction.

"But keeping the mental health side of things strong was very, very difficult.

"To pop a positive COVID test like that, when I had negatives the day before, when it was out of the blue and to see my team-mates boarding a plane that I am supposed to be on and keeping the positive mindset was probably the hardest thing I had to do."

Messing is due to complete the men’s figure skating competition tomorrow, with the Canadian featuring in the free programme.

The men’s event has been shorn of American figure skater Vincent Zhou, who tested positive a day after competing in the team competition.

American speed skater Dawson was able to contest the men’s 1,500 metres event yesterday after landing in Beijing on the day of his competition.

Dawson said he had tested positive for COVID-19 three weeks ago and had taken 45 PCR tests in the build-up to the Games.

He missed the men’s 5,000m event, before placing 28th in the 1,500m shortly after his arrival at the Games.

Dawson revealed he was forced to compete on borrowed skates, as some of his luggage had failed to arrive.

"Right now I’m just running on pure adrenaline," Dawson said.

"I am definitely fatigued and everything. I was skating not in my set-up, so it was quite an experience just to get to the line.

"I didn’t think I was going to get here in the first place.

"I got here this morning and all my bags weren’t.

"That had all my blades and extra suits that I packed.

"I had to use an extra set of blades from Haralds Silovs of Latvia.

"He lent me those and I’m super grateful, the suit was the one I packed in my carry-on.”

Australian Alpine skier Katie Parker was cleared to make her Olympic debut today in the women’s slalom event.

Parker had tested positive on arrival in Beijing yesterday, before she was allowed to compete after recording consecutive negative tests overnight.