I love hockey, and always watch the games that I can find time for, but never thought of it as a diplomatic tool to show some solidarity with two countries. When the South Korean government decided to join forces with the North to field a woman’s hockey team, I must admit I was shocked.
First, woman’s hockey is a relatively new sport. There aren’t that many countries with competitive teams. The U.S. and Canada seem to dominate the sport, though some countries will get a team together just to increase their chances for medals. China has a women’s team now, probably for that reason.
But a team takes a long time to build, and the members of those teams have to go through a competition to decide which ones are good enough to represent their country. It takes months to select the right people after combing through all the possible candidates, then putting them together and getting them to play good team hockey. Imagine that you have gone through all of that, bringing your parents with you along the way, and at the end of the slog, somebody gives your slot to a person from another country, just as you are about to get to shine on the world stage.
If there are some upset South Koreans over this, they deserve our sympathy. This is the Olympics, not some backyard pick-up game between kids who live in the same neighborhood. All of that sweat and practice time on the limited number of rinks is a commitment that has to come right from the soul of a player. Taking that away is not something that can be accommodated.
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