The German ice hockey players cannot understand reports that the corona conditions at the Olympics in China may be too strict.
“It could have hit us much harder. It’s a big step forward that we can go out into the Olympic village and be able to move around freely there,” said striker Tom Kühnhackl. He and his teammates were used to completely different things from last year’s World Cup in Riga: “At the World Cup we were only allowed to sit in the room.”
Strike colleague Patrick Hager also finds the conditions in times of the coronavirus pandemic quite bearable. As a member of the 2018 silver team, the 33-year-old is missing one thing: “Of course we would all like to be in the German House. We don’t need to talk about it. There’s a lot missing that makes the Olympics special.”
After the narrow defeat in the Olympic finals in Pyeongchang against the Olympic athletes from Russia, the ice hockey team celebrated a lavish party in the German House four years ago. The beer flowed freely; Players, coaches, officials and a number of other athletes such as US ski star Lindsey Vonn danced and partied into the night. Due to Corona, this would not be possible this year.
“But the most important thing is on the table and those are the medals. And everyone plays for them,” said Hager, who is already convinced that the topic of Corona will become less important in the next few days: “When the tournament starts, it will focus even further away from Corona.”
The 2018 Olympic silver medalist will start the tournament on Thursday against record Olympic champions Canada (2:10 p.m.). Other preliminary round opponents are China on Saturday (9:40 a.m.) and the USA next Sunday (2:10 p.m.).