Athletistic/Hockey. In March 2022, the geopolitical situation has seriously changed. In this regard, the Russian Federation found itself under the sanctions of the international community. This has resulted in particular in the withdrawal of most of our country’s athletes from international competitions. It also affected hockey players. The Russian national hockey team was excluded from the number of participants in tournaments under the auspices of the IIHF.
In May 2022, the Russian national ice hockey team missed the world championship, which was held in Finland. Then it was decided to extend the sanctions against the Russian team for the 2022/2023 season. The national team of our country has been suspended from the stages of the Euro Hockey Tour. Instead, Switzerland now competes with Finland, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
However, the usual Channel One Cup took place in December 2021. However, the participants were very different. The Russian team took second place in the tournament. Wards of Alexei Zhamnov beat Kazakhstan, but lost to Belarus.
It was also decided to transfer tournaments from Russia. The 2023 Junior World Championship, which was to be held in Omsk and Novosibirsk, took place in Canada. This year’s world championship among senior teams will not be held in St. Petersburg, but in Riga (Latvia) and Tampere (Finland).
This week, the IIHF again made a decision regarding the Russian team. It concerns the next season, 2023/2024. The suspension was extended until its end. In other words, we won’t see the Russian team for at least the next two world championships.
Not only Russian hockey fans, but also foreign fans of this sport reacted to this decision. In particular, the Czechs left their comments on the portal Sport.cz (translated by website Inoprosport.ru). Of course, there are those who support Russia’s withdrawal and condemn those who advocate the return of our country to the international scene. However, a considerable part of the population considers the mixing of sports and politics to be unacceptable. We invite you to read their comments.
Svozil Ivan:
– For some reason, this practice has not been applied to American athletes, although their country over the past 30 years has fought many wars in the name of “American interests”.
Ivana Klusakova:
– I don’t understand why politics is dragged into sports. Without the Russians, hockey is not the same and you cannot call it a world championship.
Mila Doubek:
Why should anyone suffer because of his government? Sport is not politics. Although I don’t like the Russian team, at least you can watch their games. And it will be boring.
Ivana Pokojova:
– They use politics to eliminate a strong adversary. There should be no place for that in sports.
Herman Hasik:
– It remains to ban everything that is Russian, not only sportsmen. Artists, scientists, ordinary Russians. You can even undo their inventions, laws, and discoveries. So will you be happy?
Dagmar Vyklicka:
– It’s not the World Cup anymore. Players must be able to compete with the best. Moreover, the Russians have always been doubly happy to beat.
Ales Skorpil:
– It’s not the World Cup. Soon they will introduce rules that 50% of athletes will be black, 20% from the LGBT community and 30% from everyone else, but not the best.
Petr Lavicka:
– The championship is not the same without the Russians. From a purely sporting point of view, their national team is among the top 3-4 teams in the world.
Yaroslav Pyatikh, Athletistic
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Source: Sport
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
