The Chinese hockey team will not be excluded from the Olympics

The governing body of the hockey retreated on Tuesday from plans to prevent Chinese men’s teams from participating in next year’s Beijing Olympics. The rapid turnaround came just weeks after the president of the hockey association had expressed concern that the Chinese team was simply not good enough to earn a seat. in the field.

Luc Tardif, president of the organization, announced that China will continue the year at the Olympic tournament an opinion was issued At the end of a three-day meeting of the International Hockey Federation in Zurich.

– For the sake of clarity, the IIHF has no plans to remove the Chinese team from the Olympics, Tardif said. “Congress reaffirmed the status of the men’s national team as a host country participant in the Olympic hockey tournament and will remain unchanged,” a reference to an earlier vote to place Chinese men on the field, a courtesy granted to almost all Olympics. host countries.

However, Tardif suggested in September that the poor quality of the Chinese team could cause the hockey authorities to switch to the team in the Games. – Watching a team beat 15-0 is not good for anyone, not for China or hockey, Tardif. told Agence France-Press. He said hockey urgently needed to consider a “Plan B” for the Olympics.

His comments created a potentially embarrassing situation for hockey, the organizers of the Beijing 2022 competition, and perhaps most importantly, the Chinese government. Chinese President Xi Jinping sees the Beijing Games as an opportunity for the country to show its relative success in taming the coronavirus and showing its rise to global strength.

Still, the risk of humiliation for the Chinese rose this fall when the International Olympic Committee announced it had reached an agreement with the National Hockey League to release players to the Games, ensuring that China’s first-round opponents – the US, Canada and Germany – would be full of the game’s best.

Concerns about China’s performances are related to the Chinese team competing in the Russian Continental Hockey League. The team, Kunlun Red Star, usually operates in Beijing, but moved to a city near Moscow during the coronavirus pandemic to play in the league’s eastern division. It currently has the worst record in the 24-team league.

Still, although Tardif said China will stand in the Olympic tournament, the International Federation said it would work with the Chinese Hockey Federation to host two matches where players could represent the national team “as a joint venture to assess the team’s position in preparation for Beijing 2022.”

If the games can be held, Chinese players would compete for the Kunlu Red Star in two KHL matches, on November 15th and 17th. Following these dates, a statement issued on Tuesday stated: “The IIHF Council will meet again to discuss the next steps.”