Ice hockey: the Chinese team, too weak, could be deprived of the Beijing Games

What if China does not participate in the Beijing Olympics in 2022?

We are talking about the men's selection of ice hockey, a major sport of the Winter Olympiad.

The question of China's participation in the men's ice hockey tournament of the Olympic Games in Beijing "really arises" in view of its insufficient sporting level, explains the new president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). , the French Luc Tardif.

"This question really arises, for the men's team, not for the women's team, there are going to be games for the China team which will be supervised by an IIHF official and a decision will be made afterwards", said the Franco-Canadian, elected Saturday at the head of the IIHF.

“Seeing a team beat 15-0 is not good for anyone, not for China or for ice hockey,” he said.

New IIHF President Luc Tardif and Senior Vice-President Petr Briza talked to the media after the elections.

https://t.co/YT1oCCKCAe

- IIHF (@IIHFHockey) September 26, 2021

A decision will be taken "by the end of the month" of October, said the man who has headed the French Ice Hockey Federation since 2006 and who succeeded the Swiss René Fasel in the international forum.

The Swiss had been in office since 1994 at the head of a federation which does not weigh much on the world stage behind the imposing American and Russian leagues.

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China, automatically qualified for the Olympics-2022 as host country, occupies 32nd place in the world rankings, but it has not played any matches since ... 2019.

Ice hockey is a sport that hardly exists in China.

She must face in group A of the men's tournament Canada, the United States and Germany: if she participates, she may indeed take quite a bit of rousing.

"If this is not possible for China, we need a plan B and it will be (decided) by the" ranking "with Norway", explains Luc Tardif.

Is the Frenchman preaching for his parish by trying to offer a folding seat to the France team who missed his ticket during the TQO a few weeks ago?

Not even.

Norway is the first nation not qualified in the ranking (11th), among those which finished at the end of August in second place in the three Olympic qualifying tournaments (Norway 11th, Belarus 14th, France 15th).

NHL stars should be there

Regarding the participation of the best players on the planet playing in the prestigious North American Ice Hockey League (NHL) including stars Connor McDavid and Alex Ovechkin, the new boss of world hockey believes that "it is in good shape. way ". “We have an agreement in principle from the NHL, we must now finalize with the NHL players' association and other stakeholders. The devil is in the details, ”recalled Luc Tardif, who however wants to be optimistic. “There is a shared desire, everyone wants” that NHL players can play in the Beijing Olympics.

The NHL gave its agreement in early September to arrange a break in its regular season from February 3 to 22 to allow players to make the trip to China.

In 2018, for the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, she refused to do so, contrary to the habit since 1998, believing that the regular season would have been too disrupted and that she would have benefited little from it. a competition organized on the South Korean market, considered too modest.