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The Chinese ice hockey team was “at the level” in the men’s tournament of the Olympic Games-2022, sweeping away the concerns raised at the end of 2021 by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), acknowledged Thursday the president of the body international.

“We are happy, they played well (…) For the men’s team, everyone was worried, but they were at the level, they started timidly (the tournament), but then they played with a lot of commitment,” said IIHF President Luc Tardif at a press conference in Beijing.

“You have to play this kind of competition to improve your level,” he continued.

China certainly lost its four games played in the men’s tournament, against the United States (8-0), Germany (3-2), Canada (5-0) in the group stage and again against the Canada (7-2) in the play-offs for the quarter-finals.

But the Chinese team, only 32nd in the world rankings and automatically qualified for the 2022 Olympics as host country, did not experience large defeats, as initially feared.

Last September, the IIHF president explained to AFP that the question of China’s participation “really arose” in view of its sporting level. On November 3, however, the IIHF announced that China would participate in the men’s tournament.

To strengthen its team and give it more experience, the Chinese federation has naturalized players born in North America, some of whom have evolved in the NHL, the North American championship considered to be the highest on the planet.

Luc Tardif also believes that ice hockey has a future in China.

“There is really a commitment on the side of the Chinese authorities to push ice hockey and ride the wave. They don’t just say, ‘We did what we had to do for the Olympics,'” he said, recalling that 14 ice rinks were built for the occasion in Beijing.

“There are the ice rinks, there is the desire to organize international tournaments for all age categories and we are going to support them, because it is important to have a good organization in the heart of Asia” , underlined Mr. Tardif.

“The next step would be to have an Asian professional championship”, with South Korean, Japanese and Chinese teams, he hoped.