Hockey chief wants joint Korean team at Beijing 2022

GANGNEUNG, South Korea: The unified Korean women’s hockey team would be welcome at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics as a “message of peace”, the head of the International Ice Hockey Federation said on Monday.

The team was hastily assembled following a landmark deal between the two Koreas only a few weeks before the Pyeongchang Games, and has 12 North Koreans on its roster.They have found little success, having shipped 22 goals and scoring only once in four games. But they have been hailed as a potent symbol of the “Peace Olympics” in Pyeongchang.

“We are thinking about this, whether we should continue. I say, ‘Why not?’” IIHF chief Rene Fasel told a press conference at the Gangneung Hockey Centre.“I think that would be a very good operation to do it in 2022 to still keep the joint team in Beijing and have this unified team as a message of peace,” Fasel added.